State may allow the families to receive foster-care money, By Rita Price, September 24, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “For Regene Denton to become the grandparent of her dreams — retired, relaxed, happy to host and spoil the grandkids occasionally — she would have had to allow seven of them to go into foster care. ‘I run into a lot of people who say, ‘You’re crazy,” said Denton, who now has legal custody of four girls and three boys ages 1 to 13 years. She and her husband, Paul, are tired, pressed for money and certain they did the right thing. ‘I guess some people do turn away,’ Mrs. Denton said. ‘We couldn’t.’ As child-welfare agencies in Ohio and throughout the nation work to increase such kinship placements as the preferred alternative to foster care, advocates say the families need more financial support to manage households that double, triple or even quadruple overnight. Thirty states now have kinship-guardian assistance programs that allow the families to receive foster-care money. Ohio is considering joining them…”
Tag: Agencies
Social Services Reorganization – Kansas
Kansas shakes up its social services system, By Matt Campbell, June 30, 2012, Kansas City Star: “The alphabet soup of agencies that provide social services to Kansans – SRS, KDOA, KDHE – is being scrambled in what officials are claiming is the biggest reorganization in the history of Kansas state government. Effective today, several programs will move from one agency to another and agency shorthand titles will change. The result, officials say, will be a more streamlined and efficient way of delivering services to children, the disabled, the poor and the elderly. The reorganization also is seen as necessary for KanCare, Gov. Sam Brownback’s initiative to overhaul the way Medicaid works in Kansas. Brownback called it ‘a crucial component of KanCare’ in announcing his executive order for the shakeup…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – New York City
Cuomo pushing city to end food-stamp fingerprinting, By John Eligon, May 17, 2012, New York Times: “New York City would have to stop requiring the electronic fingerprinting of food stamp applicants under regulations proposed on Thursday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has sided with advocates for the hungry who say it discourages people from seeking benefits. New York State stopped requiring the fingerprinting of food stamp recipients in 2007, but granted an exemption to the city at the request of the Bloomberg administration, which said fingerprinting was the best way to prevent fraud. Mr. Cuomo said many New Yorkers eligible for the federal food stamp program did not receive them in part because of the stigma associated with being fingerprinted…”