Generations United and Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption brief outlining recommendations to support permanencywith kin through adoption and guardianship. Recommendations include increasing investment in post-permanency supports for kinship families, supporting kinship navigators to help with adoption and permanency, establishing robust respite networks and programs for kinship families, and encouraging states and tribes to adopt kin-specific licensing and approval standards.

More than 2.4 million children across the United States are being raised in grandfamilies (also known as kinship families). These families are formed when grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends step in temporarily or long-term to raise children when their parents are unable to do so. Grandparents and other kin play a key role in achieving permanency for children who cannot return to their parents’ care, including children in foster care. Of all children who exited foster care to adoption in 2022, 33% were adopted by a relative. An additional 11% of children exiting foster care did so through guardianship.

When children cannot safely remain with their parents, research shows they do best in the care of relatives or close family friends. Children in kinship foster care experience better outcomes than those placed with non-relative foster families, including greater stability, higher rates of permanency, improved mental and behavioral health, and stronger academic performance. Recognizing the value of these outcomes, child welfare systems are increasingly identifying relatives to care for children who enter the foster care system. Nationally, the percentage of children in foster care with relatives rose from 25% in 2007 to 39% in 2024. These figures underscore the crucial role kinship caregivers will continue to play in helping children secure stable, permanent homes.

The Administration for Children and Families’ A Home for Every Child initiative continues the important trend of prioritizing kin placements for children in foster care. This context provides a key opportunity to offer post-permanency services and policy solutions that support permanent homes for children through kinship adoption and guardianship.

An overview of current policy reforms at the federal and state levels that impact the lives of caregiving grandparents and their grandchildren. This important article was published in GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy  (2017). 

Building on the progress of the last 20 years, helpful federal and state legislation continues to be pursued on behalf of grandfamilies. This update summarizes policy efforts during 2013 and looks ahead to what is on the horizon (2014).

ChildTrends article describing a study that examined the impact of caregiving on Black kinship caregivers. The study found that, while several informal kinship caregivers reported higher levels of stress due to their caregiver role, caregivers’ support networks helped them productively manage this stress by encouraging self-care practices. The article argues that prevention and intervention services that aim to improve caregivers’ stress should include efforts to promote their self-care.