Topeka ? Low-income Kansans who have custody of their grandchildren could receive additional state aid under a bill that supporters said Monday would keep some children out of foster care and save the state money.

In 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 35,274 grandparents in Kansas had one or more grandchildren under 18 living in their households. Of those, 17,873 had custody of at least one grandchild.

Candy Shively, deputy secretary of social and rehabilitation services, told the Senate Ways and Means Committee that a proposed Grandparents as Parents Act would allow more children to be raised by family members instead of strangers.

Under the bill, grandparents with incomes below 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines and legal custody of a grandchild would be eligible to receive 75 percent of the amount the state pays to foster parents. The income threshold would be $23,880 for a single grandparent and single grandchild.

Currently, grandparents can become licensed foster parents and receive the full foster care payment, or they can receive about $140 a month in Temporary Assistance for Families benefits without receiving licensing and training.

The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services also provides medical assistance to about 3,200 children who live with a relative but are not in the state’s foster care system.

Under the Senate bill, grandparents would be offered training and receive about $456 a month, compared to $608 foster parents receive. The grandparents would not have to become licensed foster parents to receive the payments.

Supporters said the program would benefit children, by placing them with caretakers they know, as well as the state, which would only be paying 75 percent of the foster-care price.

“It’s an idea that makes good, common sense,” Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood, testified before the committee. “What better person to perform parental duties than a grandparent?”

Shively estimated that 935 children whose grandparents are now receiving the $140 a month would be eligible, with an additional estimated cost of about $3.7 million.