Include Kin When Designing Solutions for Children in Care

Posted September 21, 2024
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Blog includekin 2024

Kin­ship Pol­i­cy Improve­ments Toward Child Wel­fare Sys­tem Trans­for­ma­tions, the final brief in the Fam­i­ly Ties series, sum­ma­rizes how kin­ship poli­cies have dra­mat­i­cal­ly changed since 2007. As child wel­fare agen­cies increas­ing­ly pri­or­i­tize kin when chil­dren must be removed from their homes, more states are explor­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to reduce bar­ri­ers to fos­ter home licen­sure for kin, — noti­fy­ing kin soon­er, col­lect­ing data around kin­ship care and con­sult­ing with kin to inform decisions.

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How­ev­er, sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns remain, as pre­vi­ous reports in the series detail. Steep dis­par­i­ties per­sist in sup­port offered to kin­ship care­givers, such as those in diver­sion arrange­ments or unli­censed kin­ship care. For exam­ple, only 23 of the 46 states respond­ing to the ini­tial sur­vey report­ed pro­vid­ing finan­cial assis­tance for unli­censed care­givers, com­pared to 44 that pro­vide it for licensed care­givers. While most states (40) con­firmed hav­ing a kin­ship nav­i­ga­tor pro­gram, only 28 offer them statewide, lim­it­ing access for many care­givers who sud­den­ly face nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of the child wel­fare system. 

Rec­om­men­da­tions for Child Wel­fare Administrators

Kin­ship Pol­i­cy Improve­ments Toward Child Wel­fare Sys­tem Trans­for­ma­tions notes key data gaps exist that could inform address­ing dis­par­i­ties, includ­ing the need for more agen­cies to mon­i­tor and eval­u­ate the out­comes of kin­ship diver­sion arrange­ments to ensure children’s safe­ty and pro­tect par­ents’ legal rights. Over­all, more can be done to include and sup­port kin who are step­ping in to care for chil­dren as well as those inform­ing and lead­ing sys­tem improvement.

To build on the progress made since the 2007 sur­vey, child wel­fare admin­is­tra­tors can do the following:

  • reduce bar­ri­ers to licens­ing and encour­age juris­dic­tions to adopt kin-spe­cif­ic licens­ing standards;
  • pro­vide equi­table finan­cial sup­port for every child in the cus­tody of the child wel­fare agency, regard­less of care­giv­er licen­sure status;
  • update kin­ship diver­sion poli­cies to address con­cerns about access to ser­vices and parental deci­sion making;
  • ensure every kin­ship care­giv­er has access to kin­ship navigation;
  • col­lect and use com­pre­hen­sive data for every type of kin­ship care arrange­ment; and
  • include kin­ship care­givers in pol­i­cy design and imple­men­ta­tion and com­pen­sate them for their time. 

About the Fam­i­ly Ties Series

The Fam­i­ly Ties series high­lights pos­i­tive trends in kin­ship care poli­cies and prac­tices. Based on a com­pre­hen­sive sur­vey, the col­lec­tion of briefs reveals that child wel­fare agen­cies are increas­ing­ly pri­or­i­tiz­ing kin­ship care place­ments, reduc­ing reliance on restric­tive group set­tings. This shift is a pos­i­tive step toward pro­vid­ing more sta­ble and sup­port­ive care for children.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion asked Child Trends to sur­vey child wel­fare admin­is­tra­tors in states across the coun­try to bet­ter under­stand the land­scape of kin­ship care poli­cies and to iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for improve­ment. Sur­vey respons­es showed sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment since a sim­i­lar sur­vey was con­duct­ed in 2007.

The oth­er four briefs in the Fam­i­ly Ties series examined:

With state-by-state pol­i­cy infor­ma­tion and recent fed­er­al pol­i­cy changes, child wel­fare admin­is­tra­tors have a tremen­dous oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve their approach­es to engag­ing and sup­port­ing kin,” said Todd Lloyd, senior asso­ciate for Child Wel­fare Pol­i­cy at the Foun­da­tion. Increas­es in kin­ship care and guardian­ship over the past 15 years demon­strate the poten­tial to help chil­dren remain with fam­i­ly when­ev­er pos­si­ble now and for gen­er­a­tions to come.”

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