Facilitating Kinship Licensure & Foster Care Exits to Guardianship
By: Angelique Day, Grace Nielson, Scout Hartley, Charles E. Lewis, Jr.
Summary: Studies have shown that Kinship placement and guardianship has the lowest rate of reentry into the foster care system. However, potential Kinship caregivers are denied the opportunity to care for the children they love because of barriers to licensure and restricted use of KinGAP (Kinship Guardianship Assistance Programs). Federal child welfare and foster care legislative reform is needed to provide children, their relatives, and fictive kin with easier ways of establishing guardianship as a form of permanency. Through nationwide implementation of KinGAP, diligent recruitment of relatives as a part of case planning for permanent guardianship, the adoption of standardized licensing requirements, and parity in funding and supports to kin guardians we can address the obstacles kinship guardians face when trying to care for their family.