Kinship Diversion

Policy proposal from the 2025 Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's annual Foster Youth Internship Program report. Recommends promoting due process, equitable support, and transparency in informal foster care placements by providing parents with legal counsel immediately at the time of interaction with CPS, expanding financial and supportive services for informal kin caregivers, tracking data about the use of kinship diversion, and collaboration between probate and juvenile courts for guardianships.

Chart summarizing court cases related to hidden foster care and kinship diversion. Last updated February 2025.

Managed by the national Coalition to End Hidden Foster Care, this website explains how out-of-court family separations can be harmful to children, parents, and caregivers. The site contains links to resources on hidden foster care as well as news and personal stories from families impacted. The site also has an option for families who are impacted to share their story or get involved in the Coalition.

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.

Child Trends brief that uses field work, stakeholder interviews, administrative data reviews, and a digital survey tool to examine the use of kinship diversion across child welfare agencies. It finds that while kinship diversion is the most common out-of-home placement, few child welfare jurisdictions collect data on diversion, making it challenging to gauge its effectiveness or understand the experiences of the children involved. Recommendations include clear practice guidelines and collection of accurate, consistent, child-level information.