Kiante Griffin: It’s Important For Foster Children to Have a Home That Looks Like Them
Story By: Bruce Poinsette
Illustration By: Paola De La Cruz
This story is made possible by a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation.
Kiante Griffin and her husband have been foster parents off and on for a decade. When she first interviewed to be a foster parent, Griffin had two 5 year olds and two 12 year olds. Now, she has a son who is 5 and two 12 year olds.
Her 5 year old is developmentally delayed and the process of finding providers who can serve him and support his needs has been particularly difficult, she says.
“That is where I really saw the inequities when I started to look for childcare for him,” says Griffin.
For example, she notes that there are normal pre-school rates and then “medically fragile” rates that have their own set of tiers. These can include children who need wheelchairs, walkers and/or feeding tubes, but also late developers like Griffin’s 5 year old son.
Currently, he’s non-verbal and recently started walking. Furthermore, since he’s non-potty trained, that also counts towards a higher rate. These factors make between a $300-400 difference, says Griffin.
She and her husband work full time at Portland high schools, which means they need full time childcare. The difference between part and full time is another $500, says Griffin.
She also points out that even with government funded daycare, which she says is free and accessible for foster children, there are still struggles. For example, one program she was looking at began at 8 am and got out at 2:30 pm, a serious challenge for Griffin and her husband, who don’t finish work until 4 and 5 pm.
The COVID 19 pandemic brought in a slew of new problems. They couldn’t find a provider who could take care of their youngest child’s needs and trying to teach from home with all their children was a challenge they weren’t fully prepared for. One of the results was that they paid for a number of recreational activities just to maintain some social interaction and make up for the isolation that came from everyone being stuck at home.
“I think we paid more for childcare or social/emotional activities than ever to be quite honest,” says Griffin.
One of the prime reasons Griffin and her husband became foster parents was because many people in her family were raised in foster care. She heard horror stories growing up and wanted to help break generational curses. After working for 4.5 years in the Department of Human Services, she officially made the jump into foster parenting. She and her husband intentionally and purposely serve as foster parents for only Black and Brown children.
“I felt like how I could continue to make a difference, support and be an advocate for foster care was to be in it,” says Griffin. “It’s important for kids that enter foster care that look like me to have a home that looks like them.”
A native Portlander, she grew up going to family oriented daycares with largely children she went to school with or extended relatives. Griffin calls this the “old” model, which sits in contrast to “new” childcare, which she defines as being run by people for whom she doesn’t share a deep relationship. Further complicating matters was that their family lives in Gresham.
“I had to look into actual daycare facilities run by people I did not know, who didn’t look like me,” she says. “That was a new experience.”
“The culturally specific references I got, they were all in North Portland.”
For Griffin, an ideal childcare system would be equal and equitable for all families. This would include stipends for food, including organic and/or vegetarian/vegan options. These providers would also offer sensory education. Furthermore, teachers would be paid properly so they wouldn’t be forced to take on so many children to cover costs.
Lastly, Griffin’s vision would eliminate situations where waitlists are sometimes months and even years long.
“It’s not that we don’t want our kids in these programs,” she says. “It’s that we can’t even get our kids into these programs.”