US: We’re Building a New Path to Prioritize Kin (Opinion)
Imprint – March 07, 2023
Kinship care provides a familiar face and a stable environment for children whose parents are unable to do so. Becoming a kinship caregiver is a selfless, life-changing decision. Across the country, thousands of children are in need of the chance to be raised by the people who know and love them. These supporters should be eligible for much-needed assistance from child welfare systems. In communities that allow unlicensed placements, kin can safely care for children for years, yet may be ineligible for support and guardianship assistance based on current law and regulations. It does not have to be this way to ensure child safety. And the government just took a major step to help states leave their old ways behind and focus on prioritizing kin. A new draft rule proposes allowing Title IV-E child welfare systems to create a kin-specific process for licensing or approving kin. If it’s finalized, systems will be able to create new, tailored processes to ensure children can safely be raised by people who know and love them and who have the support they need to safely do so.
https://imprintnews.org/opinion/were-building-a-new-path-to-prioritize-kin/239153