Kinship Care Support Act

Summary#

This bill adds new rules to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to give more attention and support to children being raised by relatives or close family friends (“kinship families” or “grandfamilies”), including those living outside the formal foster care system. The main change is to require federal programs and grant recipients under CAPTA to include kinship families in planning, training, data, and information-sharing, and to add kinship representatives to the federal advisory and clearinghouse structures.

Key changes:

• Adds organizations serving kinship families, birth parents, kinship caregivers, and foster care alumni to the CAPTA advisory board membership.
• Directs the national clearinghouse to coordinate with a Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network to share evidence-based practices for kinship caregivers.
• Requires grant procedures to reflect equity for children placed with kin, prioritize placement with kin, identify and engage kin supports, promote licensing kin as foster parents, and support permanent families for kin-placed children.
• Inserts requirements into state plan rules and reporting to show how kinship placements are prioritized and to report children diverted to live with kin outside of foster care.
• Expands CAPTA community-prevention grants and local program rules to support kinship families, add training for kinship caregivers, and include kinship navigators among partner agencies.

What it means for you#

• Kinship caregivers (grandparents, other relatives, close family friends):

  • The bill aims to increase training, help, and recognition for kinship caregivers, including training on children's trauma, mental health needs, and substance use impacts.
  • It encourages states and service programs to identify and engage kin early and to prioritize placing children with kin when possible.
  • It promotes licensing kin as foster parents so they can access foster-care supports where relevant.

• Children raised by kin (inside or outside foster care):

  • The bill is meant to increase access to services and supports tailored to children living in kinship families and to improve efforts to keep them with relatives when safe and appropriate.

• Birth parents:

  • The advisory board change explicitly includes birth parents among the people whose perspectives are to be represented at the federal advisory level.

• State agencies and local service providers:

  • States receiving CAPTA grants would need to update plans and procedures to show how kinship placement is prioritized and to track children who were diverted to kin outside the foster care system.
  • Local programs funded under CAPTA would be expected to serve families where children live with kin and provide kin-specific training and supports.

• National clearinghouse and technical assistance centers:

  • The clearinghouse is directed to coordinate with a named Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network to share best practices and evidence-based models for kinship families.

• General public and taxpayers:

  • The bill changes how federal child-abuse prevention programs prioritize and talk about kinship families. It does not itself create a new benefit or entitlement to individuals; it changes federal grant and guidance priorities.

Expenses#

No publicly available information.

• The bill text does not include a fiscal note or budget estimate.
• Likely areas that could add costs (but not quantified in the bill text) include state and local expenses for training, data collection and reporting, licensing supports for kin caregivers, and administering new grant or program requirements.
• Costs would depend on how federal grant funds are used, whether Congress provides additional funding, and how states change their systems.

Proponents' View#

• The bill appears intended to recognize and support the large number of children being raised by relatives outside the foster care system and the special needs of those families.
• It aims to improve child safety and stability by prioritizing kin placement and supporting kin caregivers with training and services.
• Coordinating the clearinghouse with a national kinship technical assistance center could spread proven practices and help community programs better serve kin families.
• Adding kinship caregivers, foster care alumni, and birth parents to advisory bodies could bring more lived-experience perspectives into federal policy.

Opponents' View#

• One concern is that the bill does not include a clear funding plan; states and local agencies may face additional costs for training, licensing, data systems, and staff time without new federal dollars.
• The bill uses terms like “prioritize placement with kin” but does not specify how to balance prioritizing kin with safety assessments or what standards apply, which could create implementation ambiguity.
• It is unclear how “kinship navigators” or other new roles would be defined, hired, or funded at the state or local level.
• Reporting requirements for children diverted to kin outside foster care raise questions about data privacy and how that information will be collected and used; the bill text does not detail safeguards or procedures.