Overview
For children whose parents are no longer able to care for them, the world can often feel unsafe and uncertain. Fortunately, grandparents, other close relatives, and family friends often step up to provide a stable, loving home for these children. Similar to foster children, these Kinship children may be placed in a relative’s home without any interference from social services—this is considered an informal placement. Although many families prefer less government involvement, this also limits these new families financially. Oftentimes Kinship families face additional hardships without any financial compensation and are unaware of the community resources available to them. There are retired grandparents, older siblings, aunts and uncles, and even neighbors who take in these children and due to specific requirements of government agencies and non-profits, they may not qualify for assistance.
Statistics
The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently published a study outlining the growing challenges faced by the Kinship community throughout the United States.
A few glaring statistics include:
- 2.7 million children in America are recipients of kinship care, nearly an 18% increase over the past decade.
- Of these children, 104,000 are part of the formal public welfare foster care system.
- One-fourth of all children placed in formal foster care are placed with kin.
- In the past decade, the number of children in kinship care grew six times faster than the number of children in the general population (18% versus 3%).
- One in 11 children have lived in kinship care for at least three consecutive months before the age of 18.
- The likelihood that African-American children will live in kinship care is more that twice that of the overall population: one in five black children will experience kinship care during their childhood.
- Approximately 400,000 children have been “diverted” into informal kinship families with the assistance of a welfare worker, without the system taking legal custody or formal oversight responsibility of the children.
- 60% of kinship care providers are age 50+.