Colorado cut some kinship payments July 1 and told families to get certified. Some can’t.
By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Jody Fountain testified before the Colorado Senate Appropriations Committee on April 14 with a story about a two-year-old boy.
The boy had been placed with his mother's boyfriend. It was a kinship placement, the arrangement the state prefers when a child cannot stay with a parent. The boyfriend could not get certified as a foster parent. Something in his distant past disqualified him.
Years later, after Fountain adopted the boy, she read the disclosure file. Two weeks before the child was removed and put into foster care, the grandmother had called. The family had no money for food.
"I can't help but think about all the children that are going to be placed in this situation as the support disappears for non-certifie...
