Evaluation of policy change: Effect of Grandparent Caretaker Law on caregivers, children, courts, and schools

While grandparents and other relatives who are raising related children often have legal custody of the children, many are caring for them in more informal situations. In 2004, with the enactment of the Grandparent Caretaker Law, Ohio joined approximately 34 other states that have a policy mechanism to allow relative caregivers without legal custody to enroll children in school and/or consent to medical care. Grandparents raising their grandchildren may file either a Power of Attorney (POA) or Caretaker Authorization Affidavit (CAA) in juvenile court. In 2006-2007, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services supported an evaluation of the implementation of the policy to address questions such as the impact of the law on courts, schools, grandparents' ability to obtain medical care for their grandchildren, and on children in the areas of child abuse and neglect. The law limits the terms of POA/CAAs to 12 months. Consequently, we wanted to discover what actions grandparents/courts were taking as POA/CAAs expired. This presentation will explore findings from surveys of courts, schools, children services agencies, and grandparent caregivers in twelve Ohio counties selected to be representative of population distribution in the state (rural, Appalachian, urban, and suburban). Implications for extension of the law to apply to relatives other than grandparents will be discussed.