Grandparents raising kids often face gaps in support, advocates say

MARYLAND (InvestigateTV) — When parents are unable to care for their children, grandparents are often the first to step up. These arrangements are called “grandfamilies,” and according to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are more than two million of them across the country.

Niko Singleton, 52, is one of them. On a weekday afternoon at a Maryland park, she watches over four children who are not her own kids, but her grandchildren.

“You can’t turn for a second. I’m like, where did the other one go?” Singleton said.

Singleton said her daughter’s struggles brought the children to her door.

“Being a single parent all over again... I never expected to be in this situation,” Singleton said. “There was some neglect. And then I didn’t find out until later that they were all born with drugs in their system.”

Singleton said she learned her elementary-age granddaughter had never been enrolled in school, and none of the children had been getting wellness visits.

“I was just like, I got to do this because I didn’t want them in the system. I don’t want them with strangers, you know?” Singleton told us.

Following an emergency placement in early 2025, Singleton was awarded full legal custody later that year. Her to-do list was overwhelming, and she was tackling it alone.

“I have no family support. It’s just me,” Singleton said.

Singleton said the new schedule put her out of work.

“How am I supposed to take care of these children if I don’t have any income? Because they have to live, we have to live, they have to eat,” Singleton said.

Losing out on benefits

Singleton said she tried to get government assistance but was told she didn’t qualify for many benefits because she kept the children out of foster care.

“You’ll pay a stranger to take care of my grandkids, but you can’t pay me to help, you know, sustain living while I have them? It’s completely backwards,” Singleton said.

Government Accountability Office Director Kathy Larin said it’s a frustration many grandfamilies across the country share.

“Well, the key one is the financial benefit, the monthly payment that goes to foster families, but there are other benefits as well. Children in the foster care system have access to health insurance and even regular visits by case workers who can connect them to other supports in the community,” Larin said.

For every one child in foster care, Larin said there are 18 living with grandparents or other relatives outside the formal system.

“It can be very burdensome for a family to become a licensed foster care provider, and when children enter foster care, their parents must relinquish legal custody,” Larin said.

Generations United, an advocacy group working to improve the lives of children and older adults, said grandfamilies save taxpayers more than $10 billion annually.

“Foster care is more expensive because the child is removed, the child is a ward of the state. The courts have to be involved,” said Ana Beltran, director of the organization’s Grandfamilies and Kinship Support Network.

Beltran said many unlicensed caregivers don’t know where to turn when it comes to navigating the personal and financial costs.

“There is no kinship system so families have to navigate all these government systems,” Beltran said.

Finding support

“It was very isolating because I’d never done it before. I needed guidance,” Singleton said.

Singleton found that guidance at Charlene’s Circle of Support. For her, it was a lifeline.

The trauma-informed nonprofit, based outside Baltimore, connects caregivers to resources and training, walks them through legal steps and gives them a sense of community.

“It’s like the whole community is there with you even though they’re not physically in your house,” Singleton said.

Since opening in 2023, Charlene’s Circle has served more than 200 grandfamilies.

“They need stipends. They need respite care, legal assistance,” said Juanita Banks-Whittington, co-founder of Charlene’s Circle.

Singleton said Banks-Whittington has been one of her biggest advocates, bringing care packages, offering babysitting and helping her secure critical assistance.

“I did finally get approved for SNAP so that I could get them food and everything,” Singleton said.

Banks-Whittington started the organization with her sister, Chanay Banks.

“We’re really big on educating and ensuring that they have the tools,” Chanay Banks said.

For them, the work is personal.

Banks-Whittington and Banks did not grow up in the same home for much of their childhood. Their mother was incarcerated and they were cared for by relatives in different states. That history gives them a perspective on what kinship families need.

“Being able to have peer navigators and an advocate right here at the nonprofit center and our kinship support hub for families to come to and ask for resources and what’s next for them. That’s really what our families need here,” Banks-Whittington said.

Federal and state action

The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 allows states to get a 50% federal match for approved, evidence-based kinship navigator programs.

As of early 2026, only 11 states have programs that meet that threshold. Programs like the one Singleton has access to in Maryland don’t meet that threshold and are not benefiting from those federal dollars.

“There’s a lot of promise to kinship but it’s been under-fulfilled in terms of state action,” said Alex Adams, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families.

Adams said the agency is working to close the gap through opportunities like federal grants.

“We are trying to encourage more states to have kinship navigator services that are approved,” Adams said.

Adams said one of the top strategies to increase the number of foster homes available is through kinship placements.

“One of the top strategies to increase the number of foster homes available is through kinship,” Adams said. “When children are placed with kin, every study shows children do better.”

‘We deserve support’

Singleton said community and government support are more important than ever.

“People like us that take these children in to help them have a better life and make sure they stay healthy, make sure they’re educated, we deserve support as well,” Singleton said.

She said the journey has been worth every step. “At times I’m like, what was I thinking? But at the end of the day it’s like I feel like I was their blessing. I saved them.”

In 2023, the Administration for Children and Families approved a rule allowing states to simplify their foster care licensing pathways for kinship families, which allows those families to take advantage of state foster care funds. Since then, at least 20 states have revised their requirements.