General Kinship Publications

Child Welfare Information Gateway bulletin designed to help child welfare professionals promote kinship care by providing kinship caregivers with information, referral, and support services to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children in their care. Information about trends in kinship care, caseworker and caregiver training, and examples of successful State and local kinship care programs are included.

National Foster Care Month: It’s All Relative: Supporting Kinship Connections. Website with free tools and resources that focus on supporting resource families, which include foster parents, foster-to-adopt families, relative/kinship caregivers, and legal guardians.

This article from Child Law Practice Today (ABA Center on Children and the Law) explores the importance of fictive kin and why states should either include fictive kin in the definition of “relative” for purposes of ASFA, GAP, kinship foster care, and child placement, or define “fictive kin” in their statutes and then apply all policies regarding relatives to relatives and fictive kin equally. 

This toolkit was developed to support child and parent attorneys' advocacy for kinship placements for their clients/client’s children through trial and appellate advocacy, as well as outside of the court setting. This toolkit includes federal and state law and policy resources, and a comprehensive overview of social science articles and research studies on the benefits of kinship care.

Child Welfare Information Gateway fact sheet for families about the importance of partnerships between caregivers and parents for promoting family reunification and child and family well-being. It shares stories and advice from caregivers and birth parents who have experienced kinship care on the importance of maintaining boundaries, managing family dynamics, building trust, positive parenting and communication, and securing support.