Benefits of Kinship Care vs. Foster Care

Understanding the benefits of kinship care vs foster care can be overwhelming. Though similar, there are different key advantages to both. Focusing on the benefits that best meet a child’s needs is the best way to make sure they receive the security, love, and care they deserve.

The Impact of Foster Care Placement: Preference for Kinship Care

Quality care for children begins with choosing to have them live with a family member (kinship care) or a licensed foster family (non-relative caregivers). While kinship placement can offer more psychological stability, traditional foster care typically offers more training and resources for families. Though kinship care is more preferential to other types of foster care, unique challenges can arise with kinship caregiving.

Exploring the Benefits of Kinship Care

Child welfare agencies often favor kinship care over foster care because it offers a familiar environment with people the child knows. This makes adjustment easier and helps maintain their sense of stability.

Builds Emotional Resilience and Minimizes Trauma

Children who are rehomed often experience a lot of trauma. They are removed from places they know well and are separated from their friends, siblings, and schools. Placement with kinship caregivers softens this transition, offering a sense of stability within their extended family or a familiar community network.

Improves Sense of Well-Being and Rate of Permanency

Reports have shown that children in the care of kin fare better than those under nonrelative care. They do better in school and are more well-behaved because of fewer placement changes between homes and schools. Caregivers who already know the child can offer special support during tough times because they have a history together.

Research has also shown that children in kinship care are less likely to be rehomed than those in other kinds of foster care because of this support.

Strengthens Family Ties and Preserves Community Connection

Kinship care offers the opportunity to maintain close relationships with family. Children are more likely to stay connected with their siblings because they are usually placed stay in the same kinship households.

Children placed with relatives keep their cultural identity and community ties when they stay connected to family customs and traditions.

Offers Financial Support and Assistance

Since November 2023, much-needed renewed efforts have been made to ease the financial strain on kinship caregivers, who are typically unlicensed. Previously, only licensed caregivers could receive aid for expenses like food, clothes, utilities, and other necessities.

Thankfully, we have made strides toward broader access.

Currently, kinship caregivers have access to programs such as the Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP), educational grant assistance, state-funded subsidies, and sometimes, child support payments from birth parents.

Additionally, Kinship families also qualify for public aid like SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, the National School Lunch Program, social security, disability, CHIP, housing assistance, child care, and EITC.

Accessing Resources Through Kinship Navigator Programs

Kinship navigator programs connect caregivers with information about financial assistance, referral services, and resources such as Medicaid, therapy services, adoption assistance, training, and respite care. These resources are also available to other fostering families and agencies.

Here is a more specific list of services offered by each state: Kinship Navigator Programs Around the United States (via Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network)

Challenges Facing Kinship Care Benefits

Besides the expected common mental and social challenges encountered in the foster care system, kinship families face unique difficulties.

Despite efforts to expand support in the child welfare system, disparities persist.

In 2023, states received new rules to expand financial assistance and resources. These rules simplified licensing standards for caregivers, relaxed disqualification criteria unrelated to safety issues (such as transportation access or income), and extended age limits for kinship care providers. However, only a few states have made strides toward extending aid for kinship benefits.

Licensed Caregivers Still Receive More Economic Support

Most states primarily offer services that benefit licensed and “approved” foster caregivers, but most kinship caregivers fall outside these categories. This affects the amount of support they receive. Each year, fewer children in foster care are eligible for financial help from the government. This is especially true for those in kinship care.

• Only 13 states extend foster care maintenance payments to unlicensed caregivers.
• 20 states simplified approval processes for kinship eligibility but they can only receive TANF aid. Only 8 of those states increased the amount families received.

Complexities with Birth Parents in Kinship Arrangements

Unique challenges present themselves with kinship arrangements. Caregivers may find it difficult to decline when parents ask to see their children, even in cases where the parents have been deemed unsafe by the state. This is perhaps also why (among other reasons) foster caregivers suffer greater isolation and feelings of guilt compared to their peers.

Advancing Kinship Care Benefits: Looking Toward the Future

With all the mental and social benefits of kinship care, the battle for equity in child welfare is far from over. In many states, resources are lacking for some families who need it most. The gaps in foster care policies are still too wide.

Policymakers must prioritize updating policies that better address the needs of foster care families. In the meantime, Foster Love remains dedicated to our mission to make every child feel safe and loved. We continue to work restlessly to provide resources that alleviate the challenges faced by children and families in foster care.