Sometimes grandparents, other relatives, or family friends care for children when their parents are unable to care for them. This arrangement, known as kinship care, can occur with or without the involvement of a child welfare agency, depending on the situation. This Children’s Bureau factsheet is designed to help kin caregivers — including grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, and other relatives as well as family friends caring for children — work effectively with the child welfare system. Financial resources to support kinship caregivers, including TANF, are referenced in this fact sheet. At the end of the fact sheet, there are links to resources covering information on the child welfare system and on kinship care.

This listing includes kinship care contacts and website links to kinship care programs and services offered by State child welfare departments, subcontracted private nonprofit agencies, and some Tribes in applicable States and the District of Columbia.

This brief, prepared by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and Generations United, identifies kinship practice examples to help jurisdictions change policy and practice to promote kin placement and permanency. The brief is organized into seven main topics: identification, notification, and engagement of kin; placement with kin; financial assistance for kin, including TANF and Title IV-E funding; emergency licensing procedures; kin-specific licensing practices; permanency with kin; and general kin support.

In May and June of 2022, the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network (a national technical assistance center funded by the Administration for Community Living) hosted five virtual half-day regional convenings. Additionally, one of the Network’s key national partners, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, hosted a virtual half-day tribal convening. These six convenings brought together leaders from various systems within states, tribes, and territories to address challenges and explore promising practices in serving kinship/grandfamilies. They engaged individuals with lived experience, leaders and professionals in kinship navigator programs as well as community- and faith-based organizations. Additionally, the convenings included representatives of the following government systems: Aging, Child Welfare, Disability, Education, Housing, Medicaid/Medicare, Nutrition, and TANF.

Increasingly, government and nonprofit leaders are recognizing the value of engaging individuals with lived experience when creating and enhancing programs and services. This resource offers tips for engaging with caregivers, youth, and parents with lived experience in kinship/grandfamilies so that they can meaningfully contribute to programs and services intended for them. The term “kinship/grandfamilies” refers to all families in which grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends are raising children whose parents are unable to do so.

This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network webinar facilitated by Dr. Joseph Crumbley offered participants shared/co-parenting strategies that provide well-being, safety, and stability for children in kinship families. (The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network is a national technical assistance center funded by the Administration for Community Living). The webinar provided guidance on how to identify the strengths and benefits of shared parenting for the child, caregivers, and birth parents in kinship families; formulate prerequisites and criteria for assessing whether or not shared/co-parenting is feasible and in the best interest of the child and kinship family; develop strategies to elicit buy-in from caregivers and birth parents to engage in shared/co-parenting; identify barriers and approaches to minimize the challenges of shared parenting; and provide caregivers with dialogues, guidelines, and roles for birth parents that promote and maintain shared/co-parenting.

Generations United produced a set of three tip sheets as quick reference tools for practitioners and advocates who are working with grandfamilies and kinship families from traditionally underserved groups. Based on toolkits, these tip sheets are tailored for addressing the needs of children from American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN), Latino, and African American populations. They help practitioners provide services in a way that is culturally sensitive and effective and also serve as guides for staff orientation/training to work in these communities.

The Child Welfare Information Gateway produced a five-part podcast series throughout 2022 that illustrated ways that states and tribal jurisdictions have supported kinship caregivers. The series includes interviews and group conversations intended to provide beneficial information for child welfare and social work professionals about implementing new services and programs, working across agencies, and improving practice. These podcasts highlight programs in Rhode Island (July 2022), Washington State (September 2022), the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (September 2022), Nevada (October 2022), and New Mexico (December 2022).

The Child Welfare Information Gateway created a five-part podcast series that illustrated ways that states and tribal jurisdictions have supported kinship caregivers. Part 4 of this series explores the public-private partnership between FosterKinship and the state of Nevada. FosterKinship supports the state by providing both kinship navigator services and foster care licensing services, reducing the number of offices and agencies with which families have to interact to adapt and prepare for becoming a kinship family. FosterKinship also provides programs and services to connect kinship families with services or resources they need to raise healthy children. Topics discussed include:

• Kinship caregivers’ challenge to learn about and access available services and supports,
• The value of combining kinship navigator and foster care licensing services, and
• How reducing the number of points of contact for families helps create stronger, more trusting relationships with the child welfare system.

The Child Welfare Information Gateway created a five-part podcast series that illustrated ways that states and tribal jurisdictions have supported kinship caregivers. Part 3 of this series focuses on the unique successes experienced within the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. The Tribe’s flexible use of funding and their prevention-focused approach have resulted in a near 70 percent reduction in the number of children in care. Their success is built upon strong, trusting relationships forged between tribal members. Topics discussed included:

• How Port Gamble S’Klallam’s Children and Family Services differs from other State and Tribal child welfare agencies,
• How the trusting relationships Children and Family Services shares with the community enable proactive engagement with families before they encounter the child welfare system,
• Tailoring services and assessments to address a community’s specific needs, and
• Guidance for child welfare professionals who may work with Tribal families and communities.