Kinship Care and How it Relates to Foster Care in Virginia
This blog explains kinship care in Virginia, in which children are placed with relatives rather than foster families. It outlines different types, including informal, voluntary, and formal kinship care, and explains legal and practical considerations. The article highlights the benefits of keeping children connected to family, culture, and community while improving stability and long-term outcomes. It also covers financial supports such as TANF, SNAP, and KinGAP, helping relatives understand how to effectively care for children.
What Is Kinship Care?
According to USAFacts, based on federal AFCARS data, a total of 527,180 children were served by the foster care system during fiscal year 2023. This figure captures all children who were in care at the start of the year, as well as those who entered or exited foster care by September 30, 2023.
Child welfare agency workers want to ensure that children are safe and remain in their homes. However, the child welfare system must take action when children aren't secure in their homes. When children are removed from their home, the first option for placement is kinship care.
If you are a relative of a child in Virginia who has been removed from their home, continue reading to learn more about kinship care and discover how you can support a child.
What Is Kinship Care?
Kinship care involves placing a child with a family member, meaning a child removed from their home lives with a relative rather than a foster family. However, there are varying levels of kinship care.
What is Informal Kinship Care?
In an informal kinship care situation, neither children's services nor the courts are involved. Parents choose a family member to leave their child with while they cannot care for them. However, the biological parents retain custody.
One of the struggles with this situation is that the relative does not have legal custody. This can make it difficult to get benefits, enroll the child in school, authorize medical care, or obtain health insurance. For a family in Virginia, this can be even more difficult. To register a child in school as a kinship caregiver, the school requires that you have custody or a kinship placement.
A standby guardianship agreement is an exception that can be established. Some situations are military families, families with parents with a severe or terminal illness, or when a power of attorney is sufficient.
What is Temporary Guardianship in Foster Care
In this situation, a relative takes temporary guardianship of a child. This gets done through the court. A parent can willingly give temporary guardianship. But if the parent is unwilling, a relative can petition the court.
What is Voluntary Kinship Care in Foster Care
In voluntary kinship care, children's services are involved. However, the courts remain uninvolved, so the state will not take legal custody. In this circumstance, parents willingly agree to allow their children to live with a relative.
There will be a case plan, and at times, a document in which the parent agrees to the living situation. This is often called a safety plan. It gives children the time to assess the situation. It also gives parents time to receive care, all while ensuring the child's safety and well-being.
What is Formal Kinship Care
At this level, local social services departments and the court become involved. The court will often place the child in the state's custody. Then, they will collaborate with the family to decide whether to place the children in foster or kinship care.
In this situation, the kinship care placement must meet specific requirements put forth by the state. Kinship placements must meet all the requirements of a foster home. However, timelines are typically adjusted due to the emergent nature of the situation.
In formal kinship care, the court may also grant custody to a family member rather than the state. Children's services are still involved and are working on a plan to return the child to their biological parents.
Why is Kinship Care so Important within the foster care system?
Why kinship care instead of foster families? When children get removed from their homes, it can be traumatizing. Placing children in kinship care gives them more tools to make the adjustment easier. It keeps siblings together, preserves cultural identity, and maintains their connections within the community.
When children cannot return to their biological parents, kinship care improves the chances of permanency. When looking at permanency, 32% of children adopted get adopted by relatives, and 9% of children who exit foster care get placed in the custody of a family member.
As children age out of foster care, having connections in the community and the family is essential to success. Kinship care can help accomplish this.
Resources for Kinship Care
Are you interested in providing kinship care for a child in your family? If you are ready to fill that role, kinship guardianship assistance and support services are available at the state, federal, and agency levels. Extra Special Parents is a Virginia-based resource that can help. They can be contacted at Kinshipcare@espva.org
What is a foster Caseworker
While children's services and caseworkers often get a bad reputation, they are there to assist you in meeting the child's needs. This media impression is wrong; they are dedicated professionals working very hard to reunite and protect the children in Virginia. Your caseworker will be one of the most valuable tools. They will refer you to various services and share community resources you may not have known existed.
Monthly payments
You can receive monthly payments if you become an approved kinship care provider. The amount of these payments will depend on the child's individual needs and age.
TANF
TANF stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. You can qualify for these under child-only benefits. These benefits are for families that have custody, not for the state. Child-only benefits include a monthly payout.
Child support
You can apply to receive child support from the parents. However, if you receive TANF benefits for the children in your care, the child support will go to the state. This reimburses the state for funds paid out through TANF. If the child support exceeds the cost of TANF, the extra child support will be paid out to you.
SSI
Supplemental Security Income may be available to caregivers or children with disabilities. You can also apply for survivor's benefits if you are caring for a child due to the death of their parents.
SNAP
Another option for financial assistance is to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP is also commonly referred to as food stamps. The amount of support you can receive through SNAP depends on income and the number of individuals in the household.
School lunches
Many schools offer subsidized lunch programs. Additionally, children in the state's custody are automatically eligible to receive free lunches.
Child care
If you need help paying for child care, subsidies are available to assist you. There are several ways you can qualify. One way is for children's services to be involved.
CHIP
You can apply for CHIP or Medicaid for children in your care for medical needs. Children in state custody will also have medical benefits through the state.
KinGAP
If the children will not be reuniting with their biological parents, KinGAP is an option for kinship caregivers. KinGAP stands for the Kinship Guardian Assistance Program. It is in place to promote permanency for children by allowing them to leave foster care.
KinGAP helps family members meet the child's financial needs by providing monthly payments. The requirements to qualify for these benefits include the following:
- The child must be related by marriage, adoption, or blood to the individual providing kinship care
- The individual giving kinship care must be an approved foster parent
- The child must have been in foster care and their kinship placement for a minimum of 6 months
- Adoption and return home are no longer viable options
The kinship care provider will become the child's permanent legal guardian. They are responsible for medical care, school, contact with other family members, and therapeutic services.
KinGAP is a discussion that should occur before custody is transferred. Once the state no longer has custody, payments and services may need to be adjusted. Therefore, kinship care providers will be better prepared if they have this conversation early in the process.
Federal Adoption Assistance
In the case of adoption, some children will qualify for Federal Adoption Assistance. This funding is available to adoptive families of children with special needs. In the state of Virginia, some factors to qualify include:
- A hereditary or congenital condition
- A physical, mental, or emotional condition diagnosed before adoption
- Six years old or older and in foster care for a time greater than 18 months
- A member of a minority group
- A close relationship with one or more siblings in the exact placement
- Significant emotional ties to the foster parent after placement of 12+ months
- Returning home to biological parents is not an option
- Adoption is not viable without adoption assistance
Give a child their best future
Removing children from their homes is traumatic. Kinship care can help ensure children have the best possible future. Resources are available to help you if you are interested in caring for a child in your family.
Considering caring for a child in your family? Connect with a foster care advocate today to learn how kinship care works and what support is available to help you succeed.
What are you waiting for? Click here to help a child in need!