Grandparents Face Legal Tangle

What Those Raising Grandchildren Should Know And Fight For

(CBS)  An estimated 2.4 million grandparents are tackling the tough job of raising their grandchildren. And the hurricane tragedy has put a spotlight on grandparents who are keeping families together.

Sheila and Collins Phillips are like many of them. They evacuated from New Orleans with the six grandchildren who are living with them: Joyia, 8 months; Wendell, age 4; twins Jyra and Jabari, age 5; Jayla, age 7; and Jai, age 11.

"Legally, it's tough," Sheila Phillips tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler. As this is Grandparent's Week, the 5-0h! series with the AARP highlights the difficulties such grandparents are facing and where to get help.

The Phillips family evacuated the day before Hurricane Katrina hit and went to Atlanta. "We're more fortunate than others because we have a daughter who lives in Atlanta," Collins Phillips says. "We've invaded her home. She's been very gracious."

But once there, they found their custody challenged. Their rights to make decisions about education or health care for their grandchildren were not applicable in Georgia. Tom Nelson, chief operating officer of the AARP, says this is common.

"You have to fight hard to get that responsibility in your home state," he says. "Then in a tragedy like this, you find yourself in another state and you have to start over again. That's what they're contending with."

So the Phillipses will be speaking at a GrandRally in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. It will be held in front of the west side of the Capitol building.

"We want the public to become aware of the large number of folks like the Phillipses, who are heroes every single day in a time like this," Nelson says. "We want politicians to know that we need to change some of our policies in terms of providing financial assistance to people, making it easier when you have to move from one state to another to have your rights recognized. It's building public awareness and getting some legislation. There is actually legislation both in the Senate and in the House that needs to be looked at seriously and acted on.

The AARP, the Child Welfare League of America, the Children's Defense Fund and other organizations that are concerned with senior citizens' issues are sponsoring the rally.

According to the U.S. Census data for 2000, 6.3 percent of all children under 18 years old are living in grandparent-headed households. That is a 30 percent increase from 1990 to 2000. In Louisiana, 9.7 percent of all children in the state are being raised by their grandparents.

"AARP is really trying to provide people with information. That's the start," Nelson says. "Frankly, the Phillips were folks who went and talked to one of their social service agencies. They knew more than the agency did. So you need to be informed about your rights, look for the benefits that are available. For example, in Louisiana, there is a program called Children-Only, which provides assistance directly to the children. You need to know about that and go in and ask about that. Again, that's what we're trying to provide through our Grandparents Information Center."

Of the 2.4 million grandparents who reported being responsible for their grandchildren, 29 percent are African-American, 17 percent, Hispanic/Latino; 2 percent, American Indian or Alaskan Native; 3 percent, Asian; and 47 percent, white. Thirty-four percent of these grandparents live in households without the children's parents present. Seventy-one percent are under the age of 60 and 19 percent live in poverty.

Grandparent's Week starts with Grandparent's Day. This year it was on Sunday, Sept. 11. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed that National Grandparents Day would be celebrated every year on the first Sunday after Labor Day.