.Grandparents raising their grandchildren has increased.
Ethnic minority children are more likely to be raised by grandparents
Healthcare insurance is not affordable for grandparents to have for their grandchildren.
Reasons for grandparents to become surrogate parents.
Grandparents raising their grandchildren has increased over the past several years.
Over half of the grandparents are between 50 and 59 but there is a large percentage over the age of 60 and into their retirement years.
Most of the households are run by the grandmother (female) especially if they are older and may have lost a spouse or if they are an ethnic minority.
Ethnic minority children are more likely to be raised by grandparents mainly due to being poor and undereducated.
There are a lot of multigenerational occupied households as well. This is most common in Mexican and Asian cultures.
Health care insurance has become an issue since grandparents can not afford private medical insurance for their grandchildren. If the parent is not available to get medical benefits for the children then there can be problems with keeping the child healthy with care from a physician because they can not afford to pay for it out of pocket.
There are many reasons why the grandparents are parenting their grandchildren. Most of the time they do not want to have their grandchildren go through the Foster system so they step in and take care of them.
A parent may be incarcerated, abusing drugs, or possibly the children have been abused or neglected.
Other reasons are due to the high divorce rate causing many women to return to their family home.
Teenage pregnancies are also rising where it is possible that the teenager is unprepared to be a parent so grandma and grandpa step in
The Aides crisis has also left children orphaned and they need permanent homes.
This causes emotional, physical and financial stress to a lot of