While the Tennessee court processes can be long and the qualifications particular, adding another child to your family can bring an immense amount of joy that makes the effort worth the reward. Some situations are typical, with parents seeking to adopt or foster a child, while others may be more complex. One less common way of becoming a parent is through a subsidized permanent guardianship.
The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services states that some foster parents can qualify for a subsidized permanent guardianship if they are caring for a relative child as an approved kin foster parent and the child’s parents cannot satisfy the requirement for reunification. This arrangement must have been in place for six months or more if you desire to become the sole guardian of the child.
If you are approved, you may be eligible for additional financial assistance to allow you to care for the child, including Medicaid and support for the costs of establishing the guardianship. You may also continue to receive payments that will be equal to or less than the current payments for foster care.
One of the benefits of this type of care is that it allows your foster child to maintain ties with his or her birth parents, even if they do not live together. Family and cultural traditions can also be continued and the child can keep ethnic ties to the past. Siblings are also more often placed together in these situations. This information is provided for your education and should not be taken as legal advice.