Kin-Specific Foster Care Licensing

Review these draft Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards: Recommended Standards of National Organizations Version 1.0. Follow this link to go directly to the draft standards.

This crosswalk tool will assist title IV-E agencies compare their current licensing or approval standards with the Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval: Recommended Standards of National Organizations in an effort to identify areas of alignment and identify areas for change to align with these standards.

Resource showing where states, territories, and tribes are in the process of adopting kin-specific licensing standards. The map and chart are current as of 4/3/24, and will be periodically updated.

Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network page with links to webinar recording, presentation slides, and other resources about the progress that states and tribes have made in implementing kin-specific licensing standards. Learn from the experiences of three title IV-E agencies that are piloting the standards, and explore what to consider as you implement them in your state or tribe.

The first brief from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Family Ties" series based on a state-by-state survey of kinship care policies. This resource explores survey data about two state policies that can help kinship caregivers obtain foster home licenses: provisional or emergency licensure, and waivers for certain foster home licensing requirements that do not affect a child’s safety. It examines existing state policies and opportunities for change in light of a recent federal rule change that gave states the option of creating specific licensing standards for kinship caregivers.