General Kinship Publications

Kin caregivers often need legal support to navigate the child welfare system and access services for children in their care. There are many helpful models of providing legal assistance to kin caregivers around the country. This resource produced by the ABA Center on Children and the Law and the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network summarizes those models and provides profiles of organizations doing good work. The goal is to provide replicable ideas to others wanting to provide supportive legal assistance to kinship families in their communities.

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network produced this resource to offer service providers in public, private, nonprofit, and community-based organizations basic information about federal programs that can be used to finance kinship services and programs. Information includes which federal agency administers the funding source, services the funding source can finance, and basic eligibility information. This funding primer is not intended to be an in-depth explanation of each source but, rather, a high-level overview that can be used to aid further research.

For more detail on specific types of funding, view the pages for:

• Discretionary Grants
• Entitlements
• Block Grants
• Loans/Loan Guarantees
• In-Kind Support

Series of resources based on a comprehensive survey of kinship care policies that identifies increasing efforts by states to promote kinship care and support kinship caregivers of children and youth who are known to the child welfare system.

The series includes an Executive Summary, and briefs describing:

• 1: Policies that support licensure of kinship foster parents;
• 2: Policies that affect unlicensed kinship caregivers;
• 3: Policies that govern kinship diversion;
• 4: Policies that encourage agencies to engage and partner with kinship caregivers, the children in their care, and parents; and
• 5: Policies that include the perspectives of kinship care families in designing solutions.

Summary of the final rule on legal representation issued by ACYF on May 9, 2024, and how it could impact legal services for kin caregivers. The rule allows Title IV-E agencies to use federal funds to cover the costs of legal representation, including for kinship caregivers. The rule also expands the types of legal proceedings that are eligible for this funding to include civil legal proceedings that may impact family preservation and placement stability, such as housing or benefit access.

Think of Us report that reviews and analyzes existing research about kinship care. This review aims to summarize what we know, identify remaining research gaps, and highlight areas where the social services sector, policymakers, and researchers can focus their efforts to best support children, kinship caregivers, and their families.