POINT OF VIEW: The Family Ties Survey
New report shows significant policy opportunities to support kinship caregivers, make a stable, loving home reality for more youth nationwide
By Beth Jordan, Journey to Success
All young people deserve to live with a safe, supportive family. When a child’s parents experience a time of crisis, relatives or close family friends step in to care for that child through an arrangement called kinship caregiving.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently put the spotlight on kinship caregiving in their new series, Family Ties, which explores the landscape of kinship care policies nationwide. The series shows exciting changes in state policies designed to help children and youth live with kinship caregivers and sheds light on where policies continue to fail to support kin and the children and youth in their care. It also provides new policy data on the practice of kinship diversion, when caseworkers arrange for children and youth to live with a caregiver as an alternative to placing them in child welfare custody, showing that few states adequately support kin or build in protections for parental rights. Journey to Success joins with the Casey Foundation in celebrating areas of growth and continuing to uplift policy solutions at the federal and state levels to ensure all youth living with kin have the resources they need to thrive.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation released six briefs in the Family Ties series:
At Journey to Success, we know how important kin are for youth in foster care—for supportive placement, for lifelong family connections, and for providing the type of stable, enduring relationships that youth need on their journey to adulthood. When a young person enters foster care, maintaining strong relationships with relatives and close family friends—either as a placement resource or as members of a robust support network—can help youth remain connected to their communities and siblings during a traumatic and difficult time. Generations United, a national nonprofit that focuses on kinship care, reports a number of improved outcomes for youth in kinship care as compared to non-relative foster care. For example, these young people have better placement stability, better mental health outcomes, and stronger feelings of belonging and acceptance.
Listening to lived experience
In this video, twins Demontea and Tray share their story about being raised by their great uncle and great aunt. They describe the comfort and connection they felt being able to stay together and with close kin during some of the most formative years of their life, saying, “We were really able to just be blessed and be comforted by our uncle,” adding, “The privilege we had was the opportunity to stick together.”
Spotlight on solutions
As we work towards improving policies that promote healing, family connections, and economic security for youth who have experienced foster care, we know that enacting better policies to support kinship caregiving is an essential step. We encourage state and federal leaders to strengthen efforts to ensure youth can live with relatives, and we encourage advocates to continue spotlighting data- and youth-driven solutions. For example, at the federal level, the Protecting America’s Children by Strengthening Families Act recently passed with overwhelming bipartisan support by the House of Representatives. This bill includes a number of provisions that connect to stronger kinship care policies.
If passed, the legislation would:
Require more engagement with youth and kin in state planning efforts;
Include kinship caregivers as eligible for respite care and family support services; and
Invest in kinship navigator programs that can help kinship caregivers find community-based services and supports.
In addition to this bipartisan legislation, other important policy changes at the state and federal levels that could better support kinship caregivers and the youth in their care include:
Updates to the largest child welfare funding source, Title IV-E, to incentivize the best practice of kinship placement. Federal policymakers should provide Title IV-E foster care reimbursement to all youth in kinship placements and other family-based placements rather than attach Title IV-E eligibility to outdated income requirements. Read more about this recommendation in this Journey to Success white paper.
Specific requirements for child welfare agencies to describe how they will promote and support relationships and placement with kin in their Foster Care Program Plans. Our policy brief on promoting family ties and permanency describes this and other ways to help ensure youth can live with and stay connected to kin whenever possible.
Strategies that use social media and youth connections to quickly identify and notify relatives and close family friends when a young person enters foster care and at multiple stages of the case. Agencies should also provide robust information about how to support youth in their notices to kin and expand and modernize their notification process beyond print mail. Think of Us provides a number of strategies for improving search and engagement in their new report on kinship care.
Reduce existing barriers to licensure and associated resources for kinship caregivers. In most states, youth can be placed with either licensed or unlicensed caregivers. However, the Family Ties series found fewer financial resources and support services are available for those in unlicensed placements. Child welfare agencies should eliminate any barriers to licensing so that more kin and the youth in their care have the option to access resources and supports that accompany licensure. A 2023 federal regulation gave jurisdictions a new tool for reducing barriers by creating kin-specific licensing standards. Grandfamilies.org provides many resources, including draft standards and a progress tracker, to support implementation.
Support informed policymaking with increased data collection and the insights of fully and fairly compensated kinship caregivers and youth who have lived in kinship care. The concluding brief in the Family Ties series describes ways that better data and stronger partnerships with lived experts can support child welfare system transformation.
We look forward to working with our state and federal partners to address the gaps identified through the Casey Foundation’s Family Ties reporting so we can make a stable, nurturing home a reality for more youth and young adults across the country.
Want to learn more about kinship care? Check out these resources:
Review the Journey to Success policy brief on federal recommendations to promote family ties, including ties to kin
Watch Jasmine’s story, as she shares how her own journey in foster care led to her becoming a kinship caregiver