Becoming a Kinship Parent

My name is Tanya, on the 31st of May 2010 Social Services took my grandson in to shelter care. Immediately finding out this information I went to the Anne Arundel County Social Service Office in Glen Burnie , Maryland. By the time I reached the office it was closed, I left my name, phone number, and addres to b contacted. Athe next morning I was contacted by the social worker and she informed me that we would have to go to court to get my grandson from the foster home he was placed. We went to court on June 3, 20010, and attended a Team Decision Making Plan with the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services. My granson was placed in the care of myself and my husband. At the Team meeting the agency explained that my grandson had certain rights and benefits, he was assigned a lawyer. My daughter still obtained all her parental rights, and it is ironic my daughter was assigned a lawyer, her husband my grandchilds father was assigned a separate lawyer, social services has a lawyer, but no lawyer was assigned to us. The only way we are able to obtain a lawyer is by paying for one. During this process we found that we could apply for foster care, but in the meantime while going through the process we would automatically receive Temporary Cash Assistance for my grandson. We requested daycare for my grandon and we were granted that through the Dept of Sociasl Services in Anne Arundel County, he already had medical assistance through the Dept. Of Social Services in Anne Arundel County, now this is where the problems began. To apply for the Temporary Cash Assistance and Foodstamps we had to apply in the county we lived in which is Baltimore County. That is when all the problems began. Baltimore County Social Services do things differently than Anne Arundel County. Baltimore County makes you file for Child Support from the childs you before eligible to receive Temporary Cash Assistance. The department of Social Service has custody of my grandson an they are suppose to file for child support, not the kinship parent. This is begun to cause alot of problems, dealing with two juridictions. As of July 20, 2010, we ave notbeen able to resolve this situation for temporary cash assistance. The only one that is being hurt in this situation is my grandson. Everyone talks about how this is all for the child, but it does not seem to be for the childs benefit. If anyone out there is dealing with the same problems and want to unite to help solve some of these problems, you may be encountering blog back.