Survey Data Offer Insights Into Engaging and Supporting Kinship Caregivers

How can we ensure chil­dren removed from their par­ents’ care main­tain sta­bil­i­ty and con­ti­nu­ity? How can we ensure the kin who step up to care for them receive the resources and sup­port they need to thrive? What role do rel­a­tives and close fam­i­ly friends play in build­ing a path­way to suc­cess for chil­dren, kin­ship care­givers and parents?

Engag­ing and Sup­port­ing Kin­ship Care­givers high­lights find­ings from a 2022 sur­vey of child wel­fare admin­is­tra­tors. Juris­dic­tions report­ed on their poli­cies gov­ern­ing rel­a­tive noti­fi­ca­tion, fam­i­ly team­ing and kin­ship nav­i­ga­tion ser­vices that help iden­ti­fy, engage and sup­port care­givers. The report is the lat­est in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Ties series.

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The sur­vey, con­duct­ed by Child Trends at the request of the Casey Foun­da­tion, includ­ed near­ly all states, Wash­ing­ton, D.C., and Puer­to Rico.

Noti­fy­ing Rel­a­tives and Engag­ing Fam­i­lies in Deci­sion Making

Many states have gone beyond fed­er­al require­ments regard­ing noti­fy­ing rel­a­tives when a child enters fos­ter care. And though they’ve expand­ed their strate­gies for iden­ti­fy­ing rel­a­tives, large gaps remain in engag­ing and resourc­ing kin who pro­vide sup­port to chil­dren dur­ing times of crisis.

Engag­ing and Sup­port­ing Kin­ship Care­givers’ find­ings advance the field’s under­stand­ing of the meth­ods and time frames in which agen­cies involve rel­a­tives in case planning:

• In 12 states, case­work­ers are required to noti­fy rel­a­tives soon­er than the fed­er­al 30-day man­date, with six states requir­ing imme­di­ate or as-soon-as-pos­si­ble noti­fi­ca­tion. Only about half of states col­lect any data on rel­a­tive noti­fi­ca­tion, includ­ing whether a rel­a­tive respond­ed to the notice.

• Case­work­ers in 22 states are required to ask par­ents for poten­tial care­givers’ con­tact infor­ma­tion, while 21 states extend this require­ment to chil­dren. Search engines and social media are also increas­ing­ly used to find rel­a­tives, with 16 states using data­base tools and nine states requir­ing case­work­ers to search social media platforms.

• Near­ly all (42) states require fam­i­ly team meet­ings at some point dur­ing child wel­fare involve­ment. These meet­ings — which include case­work­ers, rel­a­tives and close fam­i­ly friends — help cre­ate plans to sup­port fam­i­lies and keep chil­dren safe.

• Six­teen states report­ed using the Team Deci­sion Mak­ing™ (TDM) mod­el devel­oped by the Casey Foun­da­tion. The approach helps child wel­fare agen­cies make the most informed deci­sions pos­si­ble about child removal, change of place­ment, reuni­fi­ca­tion and oth­er per­ma­nen­cy plans. TDM has been shown to reduce the like­li­hood of remov­ing chil­dren from their homes unnecessarily. 

“Rel­a­tives often have a deep­er under­stand­ing of a fam­i­ly’s strengths and chal­lenges,” said Todd Lloyd, senior asso­ciate for Child Wel­fare Pol­i­cy at the Foun­da­tion. ​“By bring­ing fam­i­lies to the table ear­ly and involv­ing them in deci­sion mak­ing through prac­tices like TDM, states can help pre­vent the removal of chil­dren from their homes. If removal is deemed nec­es­sary, extend­ed fam­i­ly are already engaged and can help reduce the trau­ma and increase the sup­port chil­dren and youth expe­ri­ence when tem­porar­i­ly sep­a­rat­ed from their parents.”

Con­nect­ing Fam­i­lies to Nav­i­ga­tion Services

Regard­less of child wel­fare involve­ment, kin­ship nav­i­ga­tor pro­grams can assist kin­ship care­givers in learn­ing about, find­ing and using pro­grams and ser­vices that not only pro­vide imme­di­ate sup­port but also help build a foun­da­tion for long-term fam­i­ly sta­bil­i­ty and success.

Of the 40 states that report­ed hav­ing kin­ship nav­i­ga­tor pro­grams, 28 offer them statewide, while 12 states’ pro­grams are only avail­able in some areas. This lim­its access for many care­givers who could ben­e­fit from these ser­vices. Although the sur­vey found vari­a­tion between states’ pro­grams, these essen­tial resources and ser­vices can include:

• infor­ma­tion and refer­rals on avail­able ser­vices like health care, legal aid, finan­cial assis­tance and men­tal health resources;

• sup­port for legal and admin­is­tra­tive process­es like assist­ing with legal guardian­ship and cus­tody obtain­ment; and

• facil­i­tat­ing peer sup­port groups and coun­sel­ing to help man­age the emo­tion­al chal­lenges of caregiving.

Strength­en­ing Kin­ship Poli­cies and Strategies 

Accord­ing to Engag­ing and Sup­port­ing Kin­ship Care­givers states can enhance the way in which they sup­port and engage fam­i­lies — both in kin­ship care arrange­ments and in pre­vent­ing unnec­es­sary child wel­fare involve­ment — by focus­ing on these areas:

• Increase fed­er­al and state invest­ment in imple­ment­ing and eval­u­at­ing the effec­tive­ness of kin­ship nav­i­ga­tor programs.

• Expand the avail­abil­i­ty of kin­ship nav­i­ga­tor ser­vices to include those who are not involved with the child wel­fare sys­tem and pro­vide pro­grams in the com­mu­ni­ties where care­givers live.

• Iden­ti­fy and imple­ment new ways to find and engage with kin, using resources like the Kin-Find­ing Toolk­it devel­oped by Grand­fam­i­lies & Kin­ship Sup­port Net­work.

• Engage direct­ly with kin­ship care­givers, par­ents and youth who have expe­ri­enced place­ment with kin. They are well-posi­tioned to share effec­tive meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and engage­ment strate­gies that will strength­en states’ kin­ship policies.

Learn More About Kin­ship Care Policies