legal guardian..pros/cons???

I said no way when they asked me... In my state... the bio parents would still have visits that you would have to set up and accompany, and they can take the child back after going to court when they feel they are up to it... the bio parent would have to pay some kind of support to you. It just seemed like glorified Foster Care for me... and I did not want 3 years down the road for the child to be taken back because then the parent decided to get their act together.

Run! Flee! Legal guardianship is a terrible deal. Basically, the bparents lose nothing, while you get to do the job of the state. You'll get to try and enforce child support from them (good luck with that). If you decide you need to have parental rights terminated, you'll get to pay all the legal expenses. And the bparents can challenge the guardianship at any moment, and then guess who gets to pay for her own attorney? That's right---YOU.Legal guardianship is one way that DSS gets to slough its own work off on you. There may be situations where it's a good idea---for older teens, maybe, who don't want to be adopted but would rather age out of the system. But for a little kid, it's a bad deal. It leads to an entire childhood full of uncertainty, hassle, and impermanence.You do NOT want to go there.

Thanks for the input..I kinda thought the same thing..The caseworkers selling point was..Well dad is doing so well in drug court that he has the judge fooledd..he has done nothing on his case plan where the baby is concerned but he has followed all of the rules for his drug conviction that the judge will never terminate his rights. In my honest opinion I dont even know why the case worker is pushing for termination, although he hasnt worked any of his plan he has never once missed a visit or even been late for a visit. He does really well at visits, he brings the baby every thing he needs. I think that it is a good thing that he is doing everything required for drug court, at least he is working on him self before he takes the responsibility of a baby.. Does this make any sense???

Does your foster child have an attorney or legal advocate who can explain your state's procedure? I agree with Boulderbabe that Guardianship is usually better suited for an older child than a baby - but the procedure she is describing would not apply in my state (Massachusetts). Here, if there is an order of permanent custody to the state and then a guardianship, the bio parent can contest the guardianship, but if they win, custody goes back to the state not the bio parents. The advantages to a guardianship are that you would control how/when the bio parents see the child. You could negotiate an agreement prior to the guardianship. Usually the visitation is less than while the child is in state custody. With many guardianships you can still get the foster care subsidy. Plus you can go after the bio parents for child support. Guardianship may be a compromise that will allow you to keep the child. Please talk with an attorney who specializes in this area of the law in your state before making any decision. Good luck

Several of my previous foster kids have gone on to this type of situation. The big difference is, its with relatives. So, in two of the cases... grandma does not WANT to be "mom" she does not WANT to adopt, so state allows parents to keep their rights and grandma raises the kids without the constant oversight of a social worker. A good thing all around, in these instances. However, if your foster child is a non-relative or for that matter a relative and YOU wish to be mommy, don't do this.

The women who teaches many of my classes has kept guardianship for her children even though she has had them since birth because they have severe disabilities (severe autism, personality disorders, and other birth defects). She did not want to have all of the financial obligations so kept them as guardians because she is older and was not able to meet all of their health obligations on a financial basis. I am guardian for my FD but became it when she was 14. She is not eligible for many ILP services because I became her guardian before she was 16 ( I was not told any of this). She would be eligible for a $5,000 a year Chafee grant when she becomes 18 for college if I became her guardian after she was 16 but not before. (This I do not understand). I also do not understand if she is still in "foster care." I see the case worker every 6 months and still receive the foster care subsidy. There is a scholarship through orphans.org but I am not sure if she is eligible for that because it says she has to be in foster care. I also considered that I am still her foster mother. So I don't really know. SW is no help. She says she is her ILP coordinator but when I said we have to get the paperwork in for scholarships she says, "No" she's not in college til the fall. So she is basically useless.

The case worker wants us to take guardianship of a child, aged 16, that has been in and out of our home since she was 9. She spent lots of time with relatives in there but it never worked out - largely due to the girls behavior and choices. She is currently flunking 4 of 6 classes with absolutely no way to bring them up. I have found out that in our State (Wa) if she gets pregnant in a guardianship we permanently lose our license. If she does something stupid and ends up in juvenile detention, it is WE who pay, not the State. If her behavior gets so bad (ex she has a drug hx) and we say we can't take it anymore and want to vacate guardiaship - again we permanently lose our license. All funds for her care end on her 18th b'day. AND, there will be no funds for her to go through a GED and job training program unless she goes into ILS BEFORE she goes into guardianship. If we are legal guardians and she does something airbrained such as "borrows" my keys and gets into an accident and kills someone guess who could get financially sued for everything --- you guessed it, the guardian can. I don't really see any benefit to it. We said we would keep her until her 18th birthday and we even said we would be willing to look at guardianship. BUT-------we did NOT know any of this until I talked to a foster mom that took guardianship. The state doesn't tell us the facts. Because, if they did, most people wouldn't want to do it. And, lets get back to the grades issue. This particular girl is manipulative and sneaky and lies all the time about doing this or that and earning this or that grade. All lies. We have told her that we will NOT support her after her 18th b'day. Also did you know you legally can't kick them out when they are 18 - they have TENENT rights. I can't go through her stuff to see if she is using drugs and I can't force her to leave. She has been involved in so many altercations in our house (that I have reported to SW'ers) that if she were a guardianship kid we may lose our license for. Why in the dickens would we open ourselves up for that when this girl has proved time and time again that she has an extreme lack of motivation, drug issues, lying, stealing, etc.... Our relationship with her isn't strong enough to make that kind of committment to her.

I"m amazed they are pushing for guardianship....over here kinship/guardianship is HIGHLY discouraged because it offers no consistency/permenancy....it's either RU or adoption.

First I would get a copy of the exact legal definition they are offering and go to a lawyer. Don't do anything without at least talking to a lawyer who does family law and deals with adoption and guardianship. We took Permanent Managing Conservatorship of our FD after the rights of both parents had been terminated. This made us her parents in every legal way possible and removed CPS from overseeing anything about her. We are know in the process of a private adoption. This is not the same thing as legal guardian.

The SW is pushing for guardianship but she told us that this girl is adoptable and she really wants her adopted. She said if we don't take guardianship of her then they are moving her because she has another family that will take guardianship of her immediately without reservation. She thinks we are making our decision only because of liability issues and poo poos the liability issues. This is a girl who has a hx of drug issues and is constantly flunking school and doesn't care that she is flunking - does little to bring up her grades. It is too late now anyway - she wil flunk all 4 classes. She will enter her junior year as a freshman. The SW wants her to go to school all summer but the girl said she still won't do her work because she doesn't want to go to school in the summer. She keeps saying she wants to do the GED program and go through a 6 month job training/educational program at a community college. I am not sure what to do. We have been foster parents along time. We just want her to age out of our house and help her as much as we can.....but we can't. We either take guardianship of they move her to a house that will. And...the girl doesn't want to go to that other place because she used to live there. She said she feels connected here and wants to stay here.:battle:

we went w/ legal guardianship for our nephews, reason being is it was easier because they are NA. My husband is NA too, but different tribe and ICWA can be a pain in the neck. In our state legal guardianship gave us most rights of a parent - it all depends if parental rights are terminated or not. All things said and done, I'm glad we went that route because it wound up not being a permanent situation, 8 years, but things fell apart in adolescence.

Have her talk to her law guardian and have him/her get a special hearing asap to get the judge to decide. In most cases, the judge will listen to a 16 year old.

We just asked for a GAL. She was going to go into an adoptive placement with an aunt so they pulled the GAL away. Our private agency case manager asked for another one yesterday.:banana: I really don't want to tick this adoptive SW off though. We had a 5 yr old boy in our home that had so many tantrum problems for nine weeks and we just didn't want to adopt him. He was placed here on an emergency for 2 weeks and for us to look at him. I think she is still upset with us but he had ADHD, ODD and AD. When he left I was :clap: If we don't take guardianship of our 16 yr old FD we will probably never adopt.

In my state, a child over 12 has to approve their adoption. DCFS should know that if a child over 12 isn't where they want to be, they're going to blow out of the placement by escalating their behaviors. DCFS is stupid for not leaving her where she is, since that's where she wants to be!

That is what you would think - that they would blow out. She has a tendency to blow out everywhere she goes. She even said she would run away if they moved her.