Assembly 3014, and Identical Senate

¶ … Assembly 3014, and identical Senate 435, as my bill. This bill "Establishes (a) 'Grandparenting Resource Center Pilot Program'; appropriates $1,500,000." (New Jersey State Legislature, 2006, p.2) These grandparent resource centers will cater to grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. The center will be a one-stop place to receive any social services they may need. This will be "a two-year pilot program establishing three regional resource centers, one of which shall be in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State." (New Jersey State Legislature, 2006, p. 2) have chosen this bill because I look forward to working with the older generation. In today's society, more grandparents are raising their own grandchildren by themselves. By placing all of the appropriate services under one roof, it will become easier for the grandparent to cope with rising issues. With the baby boomers aging, I feel that the existence of a convenient grandparent resource center is a need, not a luxury.

According to the paper trail that I have found using the New Jersey Legislative website, this bill has been introduced to the Legislature five times. The first introduction was in the 1998-1999 Legislature. I really hope that this bill will be enacted this time around.

Legislation is necessary to insure that grandparents that take on the responsibility of raising their grandchildren have available resources. There is a plethora of information on this growing dynamic of the parenting grandparent. It is not as if this is a new situation, this in fact has been in existence for quite some time however, and acknowledgement has been somewhat nonexistent. Therefore the current legislation in question brings to light all of the research that exists concerning grandparents caring for their grandchildren and the difficulties that come in conjunction with this growing nuclear family phenomenon. These parents deserve the opportunity to have resources afforded to them, as well as an acknowledgement of the forces that are working against this growing population.

Data about the physical and emotional health of grandmother caregivers are sparse, although it has been reported that they are likely to report high levels of psychological distress, including depression and somatization. Grandmothers' views of their overall health appear to be complex, with a need to carry on despite numerous health problems, perhaps neglecting their own health in the process. these symptoms are a reason for concern considering the impact that the grandparents health plays on the family unit, especially in situations where the grandparent is taking care of their grandchildren by themselves.

Musil (1998) reports in her research that 85% of grandmothers reported their self-assessed health as good or fair but that 34% retrospectively evaluated that their health had worsened since care giving began. Many grandmother caregivers are over 65 years, making them more vulnerable to health problems.the effects of caregiver stress may be cumulative for grandmothers, which is particularly relevant since many grandmother caregivers can expect to provide care for 18 years. Further, the grandmother's experience of care giving is likely to be conflictual, with as many as 70% reporting feeling depressed, exhausted, or unable to get going, while concurrently feeling appreciated and worthwhile. Such disparate feelings may intensify over time, as many grandmother caregivers assume dual parenting and grand parenting responsibilities. In addition, the ages and number of the grandchildren cared for and the length of time involved in care giving may affect stress, coping, and health outcomes. Little attention has been directed at examining how grandmother caregivers deal with their situations.

One of the most important issues at hand is how much will programs of this nature cost. Approximately $1.5 million from the General Fund to the Dept. Of Human Services, which adds to annual budget of over $9 billion. directs Commissioner of DHS to apply for & accept any grant of money, which may be used to supplement the funds appropriated in this bill. public or private organizations apply to the Commissioner of DHS for a grant of funds to operate a resource center

Assembly 3014 would offer some of the necessary resources discussed in this research. By providing resource, centers designed as single point-of service entities to assist grandparents raising their grandchildren. By acting as a clearinghouse for information; providing free legal advocacy and assistance; helping grandparents navigate the social services, educational, health care and court systems; and providing staff to act as liaisons between grandparents and other agencies for the provision of transportation, counseling, support, and other needed services. The bill further directs the commissioner to apply for and accept any grant of money from the federal government, private foundations alternatively, other sources, which may be available for programs for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren and which will be used to supplement the funds appropriated in this bill. The bill stipulates that any public or private organization that seeks to operate a resource center shall apply to the commissioner on forms prescribed by the commissioner for a grant of funds to do so. The bill appropriates $1,500,000 from the General Fund to the department for the operation of the two-year pilot program. Finally, the bill provides that no later than six months before its expiration, the commissioner shall report to the Legislature and the Governor on the effectiveness of the pilot program and present recommendations for continuing and, if appropriate, expanding the pilot program. (NJSL 3014)

An area of immediate concern in this research is that of New Jersey. The 2000 U.S. census for New Jersey reports that households that are headed by an individual over the age of 65 totals 793,781, which accounts for 25.9% of the population of New Jersey. Non-family households total 910,106, which accounts for 29.7% of the population in New Jersey. These figures further support that this is a population of significance that in total account for 52% of the New Jersey population. Therefore, this alone is evidence of the need for programs that meet the needs of this growing population. (U.S. Census, 2002)

In the early 1990s, researchers, policy makers, and the media began to notice an increase in the number of children living in their grandparent's household. By 2000, the Current Population Survey (CPS) found 4 million children -- about 5% of all children -- living in the home of a grandparent. Only 14% of children who lived in a grandparent's home had both a mother and a father living with them. The greatest share, 45%, lived with a mother, but no father. Another 6% lived with a father, but no mother. The remaining 35% of children who lived with a grandparent did not have a parent in the home. An additional relative. In 1996, 14% of all children lived in extended family households. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000)

These numbers shift in the 2003 Census Report. In 2003, 8% of all children under 18 lived in households where at least one grandparent was present. Ten percent of children fewer than six lived in a household with a grandparent, compared with 7% of those aged 6 to 11 and 6% of those aged 12 to 17. The majority of children living with grandparents were in households where the grandparent was the householder (68%). Three out of every five children living in a grandparent's household had at least one parent present in their home. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003)

The process of attempting to pass the current legislation has been a long and vigorous road, approximately 8 years. In 1998 through 1999: S2269-12/6/99 - Introduced & Referred to Human Services Committee, there was no Assembly Bill. In 2000 thru 2001: S332-3/15/01 - Reported from Budget & Appropriations Committee w / Changes, Changed from $3 million to $1.5 million, changed from 6 centers to 3 centers, A2121-2/28/00 - Introduced & Referred to Human Services Committee. In 2002 thru 2003: S1545-1/9/03 - Referred to Budget & Appropriations Committee, still no Assembly Bill. In 2004 thru 2005:S64-2/9/04 - Referred to Budget & Appropriations Committee, A2371-2/23/04 - Introduced & Referred to Human Services Committee. In 2006 thru (projected)2007: S435-1/10/06 - Introduced & Referred to Human Services Committee, 5/4/06 - Reported from Committee, 2nd Reading, 5/4/06 - Referred to Budget & Appropriations Committee, and A3014-5/15/06 - Introduced & Referred to Human Services Committee, 6/15/06 - Reported & Referred to Appropriations Committee.

There are three main forms of grandparent care giving. Grandparents who assume primary responsibility in a parental surrogacy role with or without legal custody; grandparents who live in the same home as grandchildren but do not have primary responsibility for raising their grandchildren; and grandparents who provide daycare/babysitting for grandchildren. Many grandmothers without primary responsibility for their grandchildren live in the same home as grandchildren and provide considerable hours of care for them. To date, little is known about the health, stresses, and coping of grandmothers who have assumed either primary or partial responsibility for raising their grandchildren. In conjunction to a lack of information regarding the effects on the older adult's health is also a lack of tools afforded to the older adults that afford them much needed information and resources that help them while caring for their new found dependents. (Musil, 1998)

Although there has been some examination of the stresses and supports of grandmothers with primary or partial responsibility for raising grandchildren, there have been no comparisons between grandmothers in these two types of care giving situations. Longitudinal studies are lacking, and the few published cross-sectional studies have highlighted the difficulty in obtaining a sample from this population. (Musil, 1998)

There may be particular stressors and consequences of care giving for custodial grandmothers with primary responsibility that differ from those who live with the grandchild but do not assume primary responsibility for their care. For example, lack of reciprocal support by the middle generation, the need to care for multiple children (of multiple children), and conflict ridden relationships with the grandchild's parent(s) are likely to affect primary grandparent caregivers. Further, grandparents with primary responsibility have reported high degrees of role restriction, social isolation, and financial difficulty. Yet because the role of living-with grandparents is less clear-cut, they may in fact experience greater, or perhaps different, stresses. Given the number of grandchildren residing in multigenerational homes, examination of the stress and health of grandmothers with partial responsibility is also warranted. (Musil, 1998)

These stressor further prove that programs akin to that of the Kinship program (a program currently in place that is comparable to the legislation) are necessary tools for older adults caring for their grandchildren. The Kinship program offers various resources i.e. family support groups, Work First / temporary assistance for needy families, Medicaid coverage and services, child support, housing assistance, custody procedure and other legal services, respite services, and educational issues. These resources are pertinent to the success of families with grandparents as the head of household. Resources such as these and others will give grandparents opportunities that they have not been able to obtain through any other means as well as the chance that they may not know about resources like these exist. (Kinship pamphlet)

As in any issue, there are supports as well as opponents to the current legislation in question. Supporters of the legislation include the Democratic Party, aging groups, and AARP. On the other hand, the opponents to the legislation are the Republican Party and other groups and/or individuals that feel the money could be better appropriated. It is evident that there are sunset provisions concerning Assembly 3014. They are: 1.) the bill takes effect on the 90th day following enactment, 2.) Expires 2 years later, 3.) 6 months before expiration; DHS Commissioner reports to Legislature & Governor on effectiveness; presents recommendations for continuing the program and possibly expanding.

All of the information offered in this analysis support that the legislature is necessary and that the population is substantial enough to evoke a need for the programming. Another affirmation to this is the fact that various programs i.e. Kinship program have been effective in providing necessary tools to aid in the support of the new and growing family unit. The journal article utilized serves the purpose of further supporting that there are needs that are not being met, that in fact there are stressors in the family unit that may not have been fully assessed before. Results of the research conducted by Muslin reports that the research conducted was done in order to add to the developing knowledge base about the health, stress, coping, and supports of grandmothers involved with raising grandchildren and to examine whether differences exist between grandmothers who have primary responsibility for raising grandchildren and those who do not. Despite the limitation of a modestly sized convenience sample and the use of self-administered questionnaires, the results provide additional understanding of the situation of grandmothers involved with raising their grandchildren.

The problems faced by grandmothers who are primary caregivers have been the focus of interest in the lay and professional literature, while the circumstances of living-with" grandmothers who have partial responsibility are less apparent. In this study, there were no differences between grandmothers with primary and partial responsibilities in their psychosocial or self-assessed health, coping, or in the report of typical grand parenting stresses. Grandmothers who were not primary caregivers of their grandchildren did report significantly more support, which is consistent with having others to share the responsibility for care giving. These findings highlight the need for a variety of additional support s designed for grandmothers with primary care giving responsibilities. For example, instrumental resources, particularly financial support and daycare/respite services, have been recognized as a need by grandmother caregivers and by the health and social service professionals who work with them. This further supports the idea of how grandparents could benefit from resources that aid them in locating various types of financial support.

By discussing how Grandparent support groups have been established in some communities to begin to deal with deficits in the social networks of grandmothers who are primary caregivers. Also shows how another aspect offered by the legislation is a positive aspect that has already been proven effective. Many of the issues related to support have received limited attention to date and will require considerable work at the policy level. This is exactly what the current legislation attempts to do. There were differences in stresses related to the parenting aspects of the role such that grandmothers with primary responsibility reported greater overall parenting stress and greater difficulty in parent/child interactions.

Since grandmothers with primary responsibility are parent surrogates, such role-related stress might be expected. Many grandmothers with primary responsibility indicated feeling somewhat trapped and restricted in their lives, most likely reflecting real modifications in their lifestyle since they began care giving. Grandmothers with partial responsibility would be less likely to be affected by care giving in the same way. Some primary care grandmothers expressed dissatisfaction with the grandparent/grandchild relationship or think that the grandchild does not meet their expectations or both. These unrewarding and unbalanced exchanges between the generations may be potentially detrimental to the care-giving situation, as noted by the high percentage of grandmothers with parenting stress profiles suggestive of increased risk for loss of control by the grandmother. (Muslin, 1998)