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Voice: Plain, honest, practical. No false comfort. No condescension. She is not a victim; she made a choice. Honor that choice and give her what she needs.
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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in Florida | InmateAid
You did not plan for this. You raised your children. You got to the other side of it. And then the phone rang, or DCF knocked on the door, or the grandchildren simply arrived because there was nowhere else for them to go.
Your child is incarcerated. The grandchildren need a home. You said yes.
This article is for you -- the grandparent, the aunt, the uncle, the older sibling, the family friend who stepped into the space the parent left. Florida has resources for you. The system is not easy to navigate and no one hands you a guide, but the resources exist. This article is the guide.
Florida is one of the largest states in the country for kinship care. Hundreds of thousands of Florida children live with grandparents or other relatives because a parent cannot care for them. Incarceration is one of the leading reasons. The others -- addiction, mental illness, death -- often involve incarceration somewhere in the story too.
Whatever brought you here: you are not alone in this. And there are practical things you need to know.
The Decision You Already Made
You already made the hardest decision. The grandchildren are with you. Everything else in this article is about making that decision workable -- legally, financially, practically.
Some of what follows will sound like bureaucracy. It is. But the bureaucracy exists to unlock real money, real medical coverage, and real legal authority that you will need. The paperwork is the door to the resources. Do the paperwork.
A few things to understand about your position in Florida right now:
If you are caring for grandchildren without any formal legal arrangement, you are what Florida calls an informal caregiver. You have no legal authority. You cannot enroll the children in school on your own, cannot authorize medical care, cannot make decisions that require a parent's signature. This is a problem you can fix.
If DCF placed the children with you because a dependency case was opened, you may already be in the system as a licensed or unlicensed relative caregiver. The rules about what you receive and what you can do depend on which category you are in.
If you arranged the care informally -- the parent called you, or the children showed up, without DCF involvement -- you have more flexibility in how you establish legal authority, but you have to do it yourself.
The first step in almost every case: establish legal authority over the children. Everything else depends on it.
Legal Authority: What It Is and How to Get It in Florida
There are three primary ways grandparents and other relatives establish legal authority over children in Florida. They are not equally permanent and they do not give you the same rights.
**Temporary Custody (Florida Statute §751)**
Temporary custody is the most accessible form of legal authority for relatives in Florida. You petition the court to be named the child's temporary custodian. The authority can last until the child turns 18 despite being called "temporary." You do not need to go through DCF to get it. You file directly with the family court in the county where the child lives.
To petition for temporary custody under §751, you must demonstrate that the parent is unable to care for the child. A parent's incarceration is clear and documentable evidence of inability to care. The court will look at the child's best interests.
With temporary custody, you can:
- Enroll the children in school
- Authorize medical, dental, and mental health care
- Apply for benefits in the child's name
- Make day-to-day decisions for the children
What you cannot do without additional steps: permanently terminate the parent's rights.
Contact the Florida Senior Legal Helpline at 1-888-795-7873 for free legal guidance. Your county's legal aid office can help you file. The Lawyer Referral Service of the Florida Bar can connect you with an attorney.
**Guardianship**
Guardianship provides more formal and comprehensive legal authority than temporary custody. It requires a more involved court process. If you are considering long-term care for the grandchildren and want stronger legal standing, guardianship may be the appropriate step. Speak with a family law attorney about whether guardianship is right for your situation.
**Adoption**
Adoption permanently terminates the biological parent's parental rights and establishes you as the legal parent. In Florida, grandparent adoptions are exempt from the home study requirement that applies to non-relative adoptions, which simplifies the process. Florida does not impose age restrictions on grandparent adoption. Adoption is not reversible and should be considered carefully, especially when the incarcerated parent has a realistic path to reunification.
Money: What Florida Offers Kinship Caregivers
This is the section most grandparents come looking for first. Here is what exists.
**Florida Relative Caregiver Program**
If DCF placed the grandchildren with you and they have been adjudicated dependent (meaning a court found the children were at risk and placed them in your care through the dependency system), you may be eligible for the Florida Relative Caregiver Program. Monthly benefits per child:
- Ages 0-5: $242 per month per child
- Ages 6-12: $249 per month per child
- Ages 13 and older: $298 per month per child
Children in the Relative Caregiver Program also receive Medicaid. Contact your local DCF office or Community-Based Care lead agency to apply. These payments are modest and do not reflect what it actually costs to raise a child. They are a floor, not a ceiling.
**TANF Child-Only Grant (Temporary Cash Assistance)**
If the grandchildren came to you without going through the DCF dependency system -- meaning you arranged care directly with the parent or the children came to you without an adjudication -- you can apply for a TANF child-only grant through Florida's Temporary Cash Assistance program.
A child-only grant looks only at the child's income, not yours. Your income as the grandparent does not affect eligibility. This is important: even if you have a pension, Social Security income, or other resources, the child may still qualify for a child-only grant based solely on the child's circumstances.
Apply at your local DCF Economic Self-Sufficiency office or online at myflorida.com/accessflorida. Children approved for TANF child-only grants also receive Medicaid.
**SNAP (Food Assistance)**
Apply for food assistance for the grandchildren through Florida's ACCESS system at myflorida.com/accessflorida. Children in your household are included in the SNAP calculation. Your own income is counted for the household grant, but the children's presence increases the benefit level.
**Medicaid**
Children in kinship care -- whether through DCF, through TANF, or through other pathways -- are generally eligible for Florida Medicaid. Medicaid covers doctor visits, dental care, prescriptions, mental health services, and more. Apply through ACCESS Florida or through DCF.
**Social Security**
If the incarcerated parent was working before incarceration, the grandchildren may be eligible for Social Security dependent benefits based on the parent's work record. Call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 to ask about dependent child benefits.
If a grandchild has a disability, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) may be available. SSI eligibility is based on the child's income and resources, not the grandparent's.
The School Question
One of the first practical problems grandparents face: getting the grandchildren enrolled in school without legal authority.
Florida's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act applies to children in kinship care who lack stable housing documentation. Under McKinney-Vento, schools are required to immediately enroll homeless children, including those living with relatives due to a parent's incarceration, even without typical enrollment documentation like a lease or utility bills. Contact the school district's McKinney-Vento liaison if you encounter enrollment barriers.
Once you have temporary custody or guardianship documents, enrollment is straightforward. Until then, McKinney-Vento is your legal lever if the school pushes back.
If the grandchildren have special education needs, you will need either temporary custody or a signed authorization from the parent to participate in IEP meetings and make educational decisions. A parent incarcerated in a Florida DOC facility can sign documents -- coordinate with the case manager at the facility.
The Child's Medical Records and the Healthcare Problem
Without legal authority, you may be turned away from a doctor's office or hospital in non-emergency situations. Emergency care cannot be denied. But routine medical care, dental care, mental health appointments -- these require a parent's authorization unless you have legal authority.
The fastest path to medical authorization without going to court: a notarized parental consent form. A parent incarcerated in Florida DOC can sign a notarized authorization granting you authority to consent to the child's medical care. FDOC facilities have notary services. The form does not require court approval. It is not as legally comprehensive as custody or guardianship, but it solves the immediate medical authorization problem.
Once you have any form of legal authority -- temporary custody, guardianship -- you have full authority to authorize medical care.
Get the grandchildren's medical records, vaccination records, and any existing prescriptions from the parent or their previous provider as soon as possible.
Your Own Health and the Weight of This
You are doing something that your body and your life plan did not prepare for. Raising young children when you are 60 or 65 or 70 is different from raising children when you were 30. The physical demands are real. The financial impact on your retirement is real. The grief of watching your own child's sentence play out while simultaneously managing the children's grief about their parent -- that is real too.
Florida has kinship caregiver support organizations. The Children's Home Network kinship program serves Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, and Seminole counties; their intake line is 1-888-920-8761 (childrenshomenetwork.org/kinship). Grandparents Raising Grandchildren of Brevard County provides information, referral, benefit enrollment, support groups, and assistance with school supplies, tutoring, and summer camp. Local Area Agencies on Aging (elderaffairs.org) can connect you to services for yourself while you are doing this.
You are allowed to need support. The children need you to be okay. Getting support for yourself is not separate from caring for them.
Talking to the Grandchildren About Where Their Parent Is
This is the question every grandparent in this situation faces and almost none of them know how to answer.
The children know something is wrong. Even very young children know. The question is not whether to tell them -- silence does not protect them; it only leaves them to fill the silence with their own imagination, which is often worse than the truth. The question is how to tell them in a way they can hold.
Some practical guidance from child development research and from families who have navigated this:
Use simple, honest language matched to the child's age. For a four-year-old: "Your mom made a mistake and she has to stay somewhere else for a while so she can learn from it. You are safe and I am here." For a ten-year-old: "Your dad is in prison. That means he did something against the law and the judge decided he needs to stay there for a while. He loves you. He is not in danger."
Do not make promises you cannot keep about when the parent will be home. Children count days. If you say "soon" and soon does not come, the next round of questions is harder.
Let the children have feelings about it -- anger, grief, confusion -- without trying to fix those feelings immediately. The feelings are true. The children are allowed to have them.
Keep the parent present in the household in appropriate ways: a photo on the dresser, a letter on the refrigerator, a call that the children can look forward to. Incarceration does not have to mean disappearance.
If the children are showing signs of grief, anxiety, or behavior changes at school, ask the school counselor for a referral. Florida's Medicaid covers mental health services for children and the need is real.
The Grandparent's Relationship With the Incarcerated Parent
This is not a simple relationship. Your child is in prison. You are raising your child's children. The feelings are complicated and they do not have to be resolved.
You may be angry. You may be grieving. You may be holding the grandchildren's love for their parent in one hand and your own complicated feelings about your child in the other. Both can be true at the same time.
What the grandchildren need: to see that you are not punishing their parent through them. Their relationship with their incarcerated parent is their relationship. It is not yours to manage based on your feelings about what your child did.
What you need: permission to have your own feelings about your child without having to perform forgiveness or acceptance for an audience. A therapist, a support group, a trusted friend who can hold those feelings with you.
The practical question: whether to allow contact between the grandchildren and the incarcerated parent. Phone calls from Florida DOC facilities are not free -- they go through Securus Technologies and the family member on the outside (which in this case may be you, paying the bill) funds the account. The parent can call the grandchildren if the number is on the approved calling list. You do not have to be on the list if you do not want to be. You can put the grandchildren's calls through a separate number that you monitor.
Letters, cards, and photos can be sent through the mail to FDOC facilities. This is the most affordable and most lasting form of connection. A letter the grandchild writes. A drawing. A school photo.
What to Do First: A Practical Checklist
If the grandchildren just arrived and you are trying to figure out where to start:
Establish legal authority. File for temporary custody under §751 or get a notarized parental consent form from the incarcerated parent for immediate medical and school authorization while you work on the court process.
Apply for benefits. Go to myflorida.com/accessflorida or your local DCF Economic Self-Sufficiency office. Apply for TANF child-only (if not through DCF) or ask about the Relative Caregiver Program (if DCF placed the children). Apply for Medicaid and SNAP at the same time.
Contact a kinship navigator. The Florida Network of Children's Home Networks and Community-Based Care agencies have kinship navigators who can help you understand what you are entitled to and walk you through the applications. Children's Home Network: 1-888-920-8761. Florida Senior Legal Helpline: 1-888-795-7873.
Enroll the children in school. Use McKinney-Vento if the school pushes back on documentation. Get the school counselor involved early if the children are struggling.
Get the children's records. Medical, vaccination, school records, any existing IEPs or 504 plans. These may require the parent's authorization. Coordinate with the FDOC facility case manager.
Take care of yourself. This is not last because it is least important. It is last because it is the hardest thing to give yourself permission to do.
FAQ
**What is Florida Statute §751 and how does it help grandparents?** Florida Statute §751 allows grandparents and other relatives to petition the court for temporary custody of a grandchild when a parent is unable to care for the child. A parent's incarceration is documented grounds for such a petition. Despite being called temporary, the authority can last until the child turns 18. Temporary custody gives you legal authority to enroll children in school, authorize medical care, and apply for benefits. Contact the Florida Senior Legal Helpline at 1-888-795-7873 for free guidance.
**What is the Florida Relative Caregiver Program?** The Relative Caregiver Program provides monthly cash assistance to relatives who have taken in children placed by DCF and adjudicated dependent. Payments are $242/month per child ages 0-5, $249/month ages 6-12, and $298/month ages 13+. Children also receive Medicaid. Contact your local DCF office or Community-Based Care lead agency to apply.
**What if DCF was not involved when the children came to me?** You can apply for a TANF child-only grant through Florida's Temporary Cash Assistance program. A child-only grant looks only at the child's income, not yours. The children also become eligible for Medicaid. Apply at myflorida.com/accessflorida. You should also seek to establish legal authority through a court petition under §751 or a notarized parental consent form.
**Can I enroll my grandchildren in school without custody papers?** Yes, under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Schools must immediately enroll children who lack stable housing documentation, including children living with relatives due to a parent's incarceration. Ask to speak to the school district's McKinney-Vento liaison if the school creates barriers. Once you have legal authority, standard enrollment applies.
**How do I handle medical care without legal authority?** Get a notarized parental consent form from the incarcerated parent. Florida DOC facilities have notary services; coordinate through the facility case manager. This form is not as comprehensive as court-ordered authority but it handles routine medical authorization. Emergency care cannot be denied regardless of legal authority.
**How do I talk to the grandchildren about their parent being in prison?** Use simple, honest, age-appropriate language. Do not make promises about when the parent will be home that you cannot keep. Allow the children to have feelings -- anger, grief, confusion -- without rushing to fix those feelings. Keep the parent present in the household in appropriate ways (photos, letters, calls). If the children are struggling, contact the school counselor and ask for a Medicaid-covered mental health referral.
**Is the incarcerated parent's relationship with the children my decision?** No. The grandchildren's relationship with their incarcerated parent belongs to them. Your job is not to punish the parent through the children, regardless of your own feelings about what your child did. Phone calls through Securus, letters, and photos are all options. You control what you fund and what numbers are on the approved calling list, but the children's connection to their parent is theirs to have.
[SPEC NOTE: Folder 1mWUamVufeanK-LZbmcw4rbPb7yRIWRSP. Florida first then alphabetical. Internal CTAs: Florida inmate search, send money, Florida reentry resources, Staying Connected hub, how prison works hub. SOURCING: floridafapa.org/kinship-care/ (Relative Caregiver Program monthly benefit 0-5 $242 6-12 $249 13+ $298; children adjudicated dependent placed by DCF; Medicaid eligible; child-only TANF/TCA if not through DCF looks only at child's income); grandfamilies.org Florida fact sheet (TANF child-only grants caregiver income not considered; child eligibility reviewed every six months; SSI Social Security dependent benefits; Benefits QuickLINK National Council on Aging; Florida Legal Services Inc; Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Brevard County info referral benefit enrollment support groups school supplies tutoring camp; kinship case management financial legal emotional mental health medical social services); law.elderaffairs.org (Fla Stat §751 temporary custody; lasts until 18 despite being called temporary; Florida Senior Legal Helpline 1-888-795-7873; Children's Home Network Orange/Osceola/Pasco/Pinellas/Seminole counties intake 1-888-920-8761 childrenshomenetwork.org/kinship); lawyerwrites.com (Fla Stat §751 petition if parents unable unwilling to care; Florida courts prefer kinship over foster care; grandparent must demonstrate; temporary custody court process); lafrancelaw.com (temporary custody legal documents for health wellness decisions; distinct from guardianship); omaralawgroup.com (Fla Stat §751.05 clear and convincing evidence parents unfit for temporary or permanent custody); floridadocument.com (grandparent adoption exempt from home study; no age restriction; permanent termination parent rights; DCF involvement can complicate); govfacts.org (over 3 million grandparents raising grandchildren US; informal vs formal arrangements; TANF SNAP SSI Social Security; access varies by formal legal status); McKinney-Vento Act for school enrollment; myflorida.com/accessflorida for TANF Medicaid SNAP applications; Florida DOC Securus for phone calls; FDOC facilities have notary services; elder affairs.org Area Agencies on Aging. NOTE for Poorwa: verify Florida Relative Caregiver Program rates current ($242/$249/$298 per month per child); verify Florida Senior Legal Helpline 1-888-795-7873 current; verify Children's Home Network kinship line 1-888-920-8761 current; verify myflorida.com/accessflorida current application portal for TANF Medicaid SNAP; verify §751 still the correct Florida statute for grandparent temporary custody; verify FDOC Securus still phone provider; verify grandparent adoption no home study requirement current; len/character check before publish.]