AUGUSTA -- Across the United States, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members stepping in to take care of a relative's child face legal hurdles in securing child custody.

While the number of grandfamilies, as they are known, has grown nationally in recent years, laws in most states continue to favor the foster care system, one expert told an audience of dozens of grandparent caregivers and social service providers Friday at a conference at the University of Maine at Augusta.

"The law doesn't recognize you," said Gerard Wallace, director of the Grandparent Support Project of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School.

By favoring unrelated foster parents as children's caregivers, Wallace said, the legal system is undermining a key family value.

"That family value is that family takes care of family and family takes care of children," he said.

Wallace was the keynote speaker at Friday's Maine Summit for Grandfamilies, a gathering sponsored by an array of social service providers.