May 24, 2004

Kinship care is still a new area of concern for child welfare agencies, vaguely defined and governed by widely varying policies and practices across states. The Urban Institute calculates that about 2.3 million children were living with relatives without a parent in the home in 2002. (There are an estimated 238,000 children living in non-relative family foster care.) The vast majority—1.8 million children—had no contact with a child welfare agency. We call those cases private kinship care. These are the children most likely to go without services.

Even with public kinship foster care, however, children are more likely to live in low-income homes and face more risks than children in foster placements with unrelated families. A child enters public kinship foster care when a child welfare agency places the child with a relative and a court makes that relative responsible for the child's care. By our estimate, this population totaled about 405,000 children in 2002. Yet, in many states, the child welfare agency may arrange for a relative to care for a child without involving the court. When these children are included in the definition of kinship foster care, our estimate rises to 542,000. The federal government's current estimate of kinship foster care is 131,000, but includes only children in state custody.

On the positive side, placing a child with grandparents or other relatives can ease the trauma of separation. But the use of kinship care raises other concerns. Nearly two-thirds of all kinship care arrangements involve low-income families. They often live in crowded households with older caregivers, lack health insurance, and, in some cases, don't know where the next meal is coming from.

Benefits and Hardship
When separation from parents is inevitable, research suggests that living with a relative holds significant benefits. A grandparent, aunt or uncle can provide family support and frequent contact with birth parents and siblings. According to a national sample, children placed with kin rather than non-related foster parents feel closer to their caregivers, are more likely to talk to them about problems, and feel a greater sense of permanency in their living situation. Kinship arrangements have become more common than non-kin family foster placements in many states.

Yet, these children are more likely to experience economic hardship. An otherwise stable family may become strained by suddenly expanding to include an additional child or children. Relatives are often not prepared to care for children, financially or emotionally. They may lack such essentials as a crib or bed, a car seat, and toys.

Research has consistently shown that kinship caregivers are often single, poor, older, and lack substantial formal education. Of those who are older (nearly two-thirds are grandparents), many are likely to be retired and living on fixed incomes. Some senior housing doesn't allow children, forcing a costly relocation. These older caregivers are often in poor health. Nearly half (45 percent) of children in kinship care live with a caregiver facing some health challenge.

The housing, food, and child-care needs of low-income kinship families are especially pressing, given their limited resources. Two in five of these children live in families experiencing either crowding or trouble paying housing costs. Nearly half (48 percent) worry food will run out before there is money to buy more.

Over a third of these children live with low-income working caregivers, which makes finding and paying for child care a real concern. Typically, relatives don't have any advance warning before taking on the care of a child or children. But especially for younger children, waiting lists for affordable, center-based care are long. Many relatives report that they had to quit their jobs to take care of children because they could not find child care assistance quickly.

Gaps in Services
Kinship caregivers don't always complete the same licensing process as non-kin foster parents. One result is that they are excluded from both attention and services. Non-relative foster parents, on the other hand, receive monthly payments, health insurance for the children they care for, and vouchers for clothing and school supplies, as well as child care and respite care assistance.

Even the workers who want to help these kin concede they having difficulty doing so. According to an Alabama foster care supervisor, "You have higher expectations of relatives, you just look at it like … Oh, well, that is the aunt or that's the grandparents. Whereas with the foster parents you are offering so much—?Let me know if you need school supplies.' And when school starts, you get on into the school year before you realize that you never called the aunt to offer her services and vouchers."

One of the main barriers that prevent these caregivers from receiving needed services is knowledge. They simply do not know how to find or access community resources. All kinship care families—regardless of income—are eligible to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) child-only payments. Relatives caring for a child involved in the child welfare system can receive foster care payments if the child is taken into state custody and the caregivers meet foster care licensing requirements. Yet only a quarter (27 percent) of all children in kinship care live in families that receive either a TANF child-only or a foster care payment.

Similarly, these families tend not to make use of other services that could ease their hardships, such as food stamps and government assistance with housing and child care. More important, all children in kinship care are eligible to receive Medicaid, but only 42 percent of them do. Explained one Indiana social worker: "Foster parents already have structure set up: medical, dental, clothes. Relatives don't."

What's Being Done
Many child welfare agencies are beginning to offer services and supports to kinship foster parents, either directly or through private providers. Assistance is also coming from other sources. The federal Older Americans Act provides state offices on aging with funds to support older caregivers raising related children. Housing agencies have also begun to recognize the need for housing specifically designed for older kinship caregivers. And, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) offered a Senate resolution (S Res. 345) in April 2004 in support of relatives caring for children that quickly gathered 14 cosponsors.

San Diego's child welfare agency began in 1998 to provide services to low-income kinship caregivers. The goal was to reduce family disruptions and generally improve the children's health and education. The San Diego Kinship Support Services Program (KSSP) contracts with community agencies, which in turn contact the families. Services include assessment of need, mentoring, tutoring and after-school care, and transportation.

Often, the real service is for someone to just be there. As one recipient remarked, "My grandsons both have ADHD [attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder] and when I had to go to school for them, a worker said, ?We will go with you,' and it was like I finally had somebody at my back."

One private non-profit entity in Pittsburgh, A Second Chance, started in a reconverted church rectory in 1995. Now the agency offers a full range of kinship care services regulated by the Allegheny (Pennsylvania) County Foster Care Task Force. Medical screening, intensive kinship care training, crisis intervention, counseling, and other services are provided.

Senator Clinton would like to see even more activity. S. Res. 345 expresses the sense of the Senate that "Congress should expand the supports and services available to grandparents and other relatives who are raising children when their biological parents have died or can no longer take care of them."

As policymakers continue to develop strategies, they must consider the needs of both public and private kinship care situations, decide when to involve child welfare agencies, and determine when relatives can be served effectively by other public agencies.

Jennifer Ehrle is a research associate with the Urban Institute, where she specializes in research on abuse, neglect, and the child welfare system and other policy issues related to the well-being of children and families.