General Foster Care Resources

This Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT policy report underscores a simple fact about childhood: Family matters. Yet, today in America, 57,000 children are still living in group placements. Readers will learn about limiting the role of residential treatment care to its intended purpose and how state and local leaders can work together to enhance family-oriented services and supports (2015). 

Kinship Process Mapping (KPM) is a form of analysis adapted from business to help child welfare agencies increase their efficiency and effectiveness in working with kinship families. This Annie E. Casey Foundation guide provides a step-by-step process to help agencies prepare for KPM, facilitate KPM sessions, analyze results and develop solutions. The Guide also includes kinship process templates that can be tailored to the unique needs and issues confronting public child welfare systems (2013).

This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation explores the practice of "kinship diversion" in which children are placed with relatives as an alternative to foster care.  Different perspectives about whether kinship diversion is a good or bad practice are offered.  The report concludes that child welfare agencies should more thoroughly explore their kinship diversion practices to ensure they adequately meet the needs of children, their parents and kinship caregivers (2013).

US Government Accountability Office (GAO) study (2011).

Summarizes key findings from the most recent survey of states’ kinship care policies. This study looks at the implications of states increasing their use of relatives to care for abused and neglected children to avoid having to take children into custody, from Child Trends (2008).