National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections: There are many benefits of placing children separated from parents with their relatives. Relatives are able to offer family support and frequent contact with birth parents and siblings. Therefore, kinship care placements have become the preferred option of child welfare agencies. Under the Fostering Connections Act, there is much support for relatives caring for foster children, including: (1) federal reimbursement under Title IV-E for guardianship assistance payments, (2) requirements for states to provide relatives with notice of the placement of a related child in foster care, (3) codification of existing federal guidance permitting flexibility in foster care licensing for relatives, (4) requirements for states to make reasonable efforts to keep siblings together in foster care, and (5) grants to support maintaining family connections. Link to Info Packet
Tag Archives: kinship care
Implementing a Post-Care Service System in Child Welfare
The last decade has seen a growing recognition of the need for post-permanency services as a means of achieving the wellbeing of children and youth who were in foster care. Ensuring the availability and sustainability of an array of post-permanency services to support former foster children and their permanent families—whether birth, kinship, or adoptive—can be viewed as the next challenge for child welfare agencies. The development of the Child Wellbeing Project in Catawba County is an example of a local community rising to meet this important new challenge. Comprises three separate Briefs. Link to pdf Brief 1 Link to pdf Brief 2 Link to pdf Brief 3
Improving Systems That Support Kinship Care
About one-fourth of all children in out-of-home care are placed with kin, yet the report indicates many kinship caregivers are unaware of the numerous services and supports available to them or have inaccurate information about eligibility requirements. Given the Federal preference for kinship care and the potential cost savings of diverting children from foster care, the report identifies numerous ways in which States can improve supports for kinship families. “Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families,” is available on the Annie E. Casey Foundation website: Link to Kinship Care Report