Trends in Service Receipt: Children in Kinship Care Gaining Ground

Abstract

Many children in kinship care have better standards of living than they did nearly a decade ago, but some still struggle.

Impact of Kinship Care on Behavioral Well-being for Children in Out-of-Home Care

“…2,49,50 These concerns about the support provided to kinship families have risen to the federal level of policy. Legislation has been introduced in the 110th Congress that would provide funding for states to provide guardianship benefits to kinship caregivers and to develop navigator programs that would link these caregivers to appropriate services and funding streams for children under their care.…”

“…In addition, an Urban Institute report in 2002 found that only one-third of informal kinship families even obtained the cash assistance benefits from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families for which their children were eligible. 49 Access to education, Medicaid, mental health services, and Figure.…”

An Overview of Selected Data on Children in Vulnerable Families

“…According to analyses of the 2002 NSAF, approximately one-third (32 percent) of children whom social services helped place with a relative are living with relatives who do not receive any type of payment for the child's care (Murray, Macomber, and Geen 2004). A recent analysis of this population suggests, however, that rates of poverty and uninsurance declined steadily for children in these arrangements between 1997 and 2002, and that the gains were even more dramatic than those made by children living with their parents (Main, Macomber, and Geen 2006).…”

Developing consistent and transparent kinship care policy and practice: State mandated, mediated, and independent care

“…Although an important issue, we are unable to attend to this degree of specificity here. Ehrle et al, 2003;Main et al, 2006). Data from a 2007 survey of state-level kinship practices indicates that at least 39 states engage in kinship diversion with 29 of these states actively promoting the practice (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2013); 12 states, in contrast, prohibit kinship diversion.…”

“…These arrangements may occur temporarily or permanently as children are shifted from their parent's household to the home of their relative for any number of reasons. Of the approximately 3 million children living with a relative without a parent present, it is estimated that upwards of 1.8 million are living in these private family constellations (Main, Macomber, & Geen, 2006). Caregivers in informal living arrangements are not required to submit to screening or licensing procedures, of course, because their care falls outside of the auspices or the supervision of any government entity.…”