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McSally, Grijalva pull together for grandparents raising kids

Grandparents take over child rearing from parents
Posted at 8:34 PM, Aug 30, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-30 23:34:44-04

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Sometimes grandparents take over child care from troubled parents.  

Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva and Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally are pulling together to help grandparents get more help with the challenges of being parents all over again.

At the Kare Family Center, the Arizona Grandparent Ambassadors brought together grandparents and grandchildren coping with parents so troubled they are no longer involving in child rearing.

Dani says life got better when she was removed from her parents and moved in with her grandmother.

"Our lives after being removed and later adopted aren't perfect.  We still have some problems we're trying to resolve but living with our Grandma is more than we could have ever hoped for."

Andrea is raising four grandchildren.  She says the state gives more help to licensed foster parents than to grandparents struggling to raise children.

"Licensed , I'd get over 600 dollars a month.  For me, 30 dollars per kid, a month. That's not much."

Congressmembers Martha McSally and Raul Grijalva are from different parties but they agreed to push a resolution in Congress to recognize Grandparents raising children need more help.

Grijalva says, “And I think we have to make sure that there's some equity between that household being run by grandparents and what we consider a traditional household.  There has to be some equity between the licensed foster care process that exists now and kinship and grandparents taking care of their grandkids."

McSally says, “We've already passed some legislation like making it easier for grandparents across state lines to be able to get custody if a kid's in crisis instead of getting stuck in the system."

Early next month the Arizona Grandparent Ambassadors are holding a statewide summit in Phoenix to work towards better ways to raise their grandkids.