Sunday, July 7, 2002

A story released today by the Associated Press reports that according to the 2000 Census, more than 2.4 million grandparents in America have become primary caregivers to a grandchild.

It was the first time the once-a-decade count tracked such living arrangements.

The closest the census had come in the past to addressing this issue was to estimate the percentage of children under 18 living in a grandparent-headed home. That was 6.3 percent in 2000, compared with 5.5 percent in 1990, 3.6 percent in 1980 and 3.2 percent in 1970.

Figures showing the number of children in a grandparent-headed home in 2000, released last year, was based on data from all census forms as was the case for the data covering 1990, 1980 and 1970. Analysis of the additional data obtained from the long form used in the 2000 census was not available until recently.

Grandparents often step in after a grandchild's lose contact or end up in jail, said Amy Goyer of the Grandparents Information Center with AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans.

Others assume responsibility when a child's parents die or divorce -- leaving many grandmothers and grandfathers with unforeseen financial burdens.

"A lot of grandparents doing this are ready for retirement," said W.L. Smith, a 62-year-old retired government worker from Boise, Idaho, who has raised his 18-year-old granddaughter for the past 10 years.

``They are not prepared. It's a financial burden because of schools, legal battles they go through -- that's the biggest financial burden,'' Smith said.

Percentages of such living arrangements were highest in the South and rural counties across the Midwest and West, and lowest in the Northeast, California and Hawaii.

In many of these places, extended families and neighbors have long pitched in to help raise children in isolated communities, said Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United, an advocacy group for families where youth and elderly people live together.

Wyoming and Oklahoma led states in the share of grandparents who served parental roles to grandchildren -- at 59 percent. It was lowest in Massachusetts, at 28 percent.

Regardless, the sudden responsibility often results in stress, resentment toward their children, and messy family disputes that spill out into courtrooms, Butts said.

A few states offer guardianship subsidies for grandparents and other relatives. Some grandparents also get assistance through the federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families program, which replaced welfare.

"What we really need is more financial assistance," said Nina McGonegal, who raises two grandchildren and runs a support group for others in her situation in Wilmington, Del. "Everything I've put away (in savings accounts) I've used to raise the children."