Kinship Data

HHS brief that describes the benefits of kinship care and recent steps that states and the federal government have taken to promote kinship care. The brief also identifies further opportunities for states to promote kinship care, including by adopting kin-specific licensing standards, participating in Title IV-E kinship navigator programs, and broadening their definition of relative/kin.

Use this kinship licensing data collection template to assist in evaluation of your jurisdiction's implementation of new kin-specific licensing standards. The template will open as an editable Excel spreadsheet.

Series of resources based on a comprehensive survey of kinship care policies that identifies increasing efforts by states to promote kinship care and support kinship caregivers of children and youth who are known to the child welfare system.

The series includes an Executive Summary, and briefs describing:

• 1: Policies that support licensure of kinship foster parents;
• 2: Policies that affect unlicensed kinship caregivers;
• 3: Policies that govern kinship diversion;
• 4: Policies that encourage agencies to engage and partner with kinship caregivers, the children in their care, and parents; and
• 5: Policies that include the perspectives of kinship care families in designing solutions.

Think of Us report that reviews and analyzes existing research about kinship care. This review aims to summarize what we know, identify remaining research gaps, and highlight areas where the social services sector, policymakers, and researchers can focus their efforts to best support children, kinship caregivers, and their families.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released its third brief in a five-part series  - Family Ties: Analysis from a State-By-State Survey of Kinship Care Policies - based on survey data collected in 2022 for the AECF by Child Trends.  This brief,  New Insights on State Kinship Diversion Policies, examines survey data related to state’s policies for creating, overseeing and tracking diversion arrangements and the resources made available for children and kinship caregivers in diversion arrangements.