This Sunday, Sept. 12, is National Grandparents Day, an appropriate time to consider the crucial and growing role grandparents are playing in caring for America’s kids, and the economic challenges they face in providing that care.

• 4.5 million children lived in their grandparents’ home in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Buresu.

• In 2008, 6.4 million grandparents had grandchildren younger than 18 living with them.

• 2.6 million of those grandparents were responsible for most of the basic needs (e.g., food, shelter, clothing) of one or more of the grandchildren living with them.

• 19% of those grandparents who were responsible for their grandchildren’s needs had income below the poverty level. That translates to nearly a HALF MILLION grandparents who were poor but had to provide for their grandchildren.

• There were 655,000 grandparents with a disability who were caring for their grandchildren in 2008.

• 30% of children younger than 5 whose mothers worked outside the home were cared for on a regular basis by a grandparent during their mother’s working hours in 2005.