Part ofopioid crisis →

FEDERALhearing transcript

High Impact

Senate Hearing: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren During the Opioid Crisis

Original title: GRANDPARENTS TO THE RESCUE: RAISING GRANDCHILDREN IN THE OPIOID CRISIS AND BEYOND

January 1, 2018

opioid crisis grandparents child welfare aging family support

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The Frame

What this does

The hearing highlights the growing number of seniors who are unexpectedly assuming full-time child-rearing responsibilities, which impacts their retirement savings, health, and long-term financial stability.

Who is mentioned in the record

Potentially affected actors named in the source documents. Mention is not a position.

Custodial Grandparents

These individuals are assuming full-time parenting responsibilities, which impacts their retirement planning, daily schedules, and financial resources.

Children in Kinship Care

These children are being raised by grandparents due to the absence or inability of their biological parents to provide care.

What changed

Last recorded activity January 1, 2018.

What's next

Next step not available in the current record.

Summary

This Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing examined the challenges faced by grandparents who become the primary caregivers for their grandchildren due to the opioid epidemic and other family crises. The committee discussed the financial, emotional, and logistical impacts on seniors who unexpectedly return to parenting roles.

Key Facts

One in five grandparents in the U.S. provides regular child care for their grandchildren.
A baby is born with an opioid addiction every 25 minutes in the United States.
In Maine, the number of children raised solely by grandparents increased by 24% between 2010 and 2015.
Nearly 1,000 babies in Maine (8% of all births) were born to women addicted to opioids or other drugs in 2016.
Custodial grandparents often face unexpected financial strain, including the depletion of retirement savings.
Common reasons for grandparents assuming custody include parental drug/alcohol addiction, incarceration, abuse, death, and military deployment.

Why It Matters

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are more grandparents raising their grandchildren?

Grandparents are increasingly stepping in due to parental issues such as opioid and drug addiction, incarceration, physical abuse, death, and financial instability.

What is a 'custodial grandparent'?

A is a grandparent who has taken on the primary, full-time responsibility of raising their grandchild without the child's parents present.

News Coverage

No news coverage found yet. Articles are indexed twice daily.

Discoveries

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.

policy shift90% confidence

Shift in Senior Caregiving

The document highlights a significant demographic shift where seniors are moving from retirement leisure to primary child-rearing roles due to the opioid epidemic.

Special Committee on Aging

Connected Entities

organizationSpecial Committee on Aging“U.S. Senate committee conducting the hearing”Map →

organizationGenerations United“Advocacy group for intergenerational programs”Map →

personRobert P. Casey, Jr.“Ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging”Map →

personSusan M. Collins“Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging”Map →

organizationA Second Chance, Inc.“Organization providing support for kinship care”Map →

Sources

Open source document

www.govinfo.gov

Analysis Score

0–100

Significance75
How much this matters to a regular citizen
Controversy20
Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
Entertainment10
Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
Buzz30
Current news / social attention level

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