On November 16, the Advisory Council to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren delivered its first report to Congress.

The report is a culmination of a two-year effort that gathered information from kin and grandparent caregivers of children across the country. It provides an overview of the many complex issues faced by these families and recommendations for addressing them.

The 22 recommendations fall under five priority areas:

• Awareness of and Outreach to Kin and Grandparent Caregivers including increasing public understanding of the contributions of kin and grandparent caregivers.

• Kin and Grandparent Caregiver Engagement to better integrate kin and grandparent caregivers into the child’s care team.

• Services and Supports for Kinship Families and Grandfamilies including increasing access to information, services, and supports like respite care, child care and counseling.

• Financial and Workplace Security for Kin and Grandparent Caregivers to promote policies that prevent them from being financially disadvantaged and to adopt workplace policies, flexibilities and practices that recognize their caregiving responsibilities.

• Research, Data and Evidence-Supported Practices to establish a national approach for obtaining, analyzing, disseminating and applying relevant data on kinship families and grandfamilies.

Together with the RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council’s initial report to Congress released in September, these reports offer a comprehensive examination of the experiences, needs and concerns of family caregivers.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports there are 2.7 million children being raised in the homes of grandparents. Unfortunately, data on the number of children being raised by non-grandparent kin is not available.

The Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (SGRG) Act authorized establishing an advisory council to identify, promote, coordinate and disseminate information, resources `and best practices available to help grandparents and other older relatives meet the needs of children in their care.

For a copy of the report, visit https://acl.gov/SGRG/report