In 2022, more than 2.5 million children were being raised in kinship care (i.e., by a grandparent, other relative, or close family friend), with the vast majority in informal care arrangements—in other words, they were being raised outside of the foster care system. Despite the known benefits of kinship care for children whose parents are unable to care for them, U.S. child welfare agencies place, on average, only 31 percent of children in foster care with kin.[1] This blog describes how creating and nurturing partnerships between public and private child welfare agencies—for example, through programs like Kinship Therapeutic Foster Care and kinship navigator programs—can promote a kin-first culture and approach and increase supports for kinship families.
Kinship families are best supported when public and private child welfare agencies partner to meet their many varied needs. These can include public child welfare agencies partnering with private agencies to search for and engage kin, as many kin are wary of interacting with public agencies, or having a kinship navigator from a private agency attend a team decision-making meeting to help explain what resources are available to support a kinship caregiver. Prior studies show that communication and collaboration are needed to ensure that families found through intensive searches—for example, via scans of social media and use of tailored databases—remained engaged and supported once the private agency worker was no longer involved. Even with the best intent, it can be challenging for public and private child welfare agencies to work together. Competition for limited resources (e.g., funding, staff) often creates a barrier to effective public-private partnerships.
In a kin-first culture, staff at all levels of a child welfare agency—and in all units of practice—believe in the benefits of kinship care and do all they can to ensure that children are placed with kin when they cannot remain with their parents. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network, in conjunction with other experts, developed Creating a Kin-First Culture. Kin-first culture includes searching for kin early and often when a child enters and remains in care and engaging appropriate kin as both placement and support options for the child.
Collaborative partnerships between public and private child welfare agencies require effort and dedication of staff at all levels. When successful, these partnerships can result in better outcomes for children and families, and in less costly, more efficient, and more effective child welfare practice. Child Trends recently completed a six-year evaluation of the Kinship Therapeutic Foster Care (KTFC) pilot program in three counties in North Carolina, funded by The Duke Endowment and supported by the Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA). In each county, the public child welfare agency was paired with a private child welfare agency. Working in partnership, the counties successfully implemented KTFC, increasing the focus on kin and promoting a kin-first culture. This program used a range of partnership strategies:
Organization and leadership support:
Written policies and procedures for collaboration between partner agencies to best serve kinship families, as well as strong support from public and private partner agencies
Competent staff:
Supervisory and frontline staff at partner agencies whose main job responsibilities are to the KTFC pilot, joint trainings on the benefits of kinship care and kin search and engagement strategies, and participation in FFTA-provided technical assistance
Effective procedures:
Public and private partner agencies providing joint information sessions for families about KTFC, shared responsibilities among partners for home studies and licensure, and warm handoffs for families moving from public to private agency supervision
Joint planning and communication:
Regular communication between partner agency staff (including joint supervision sessions and/or weekly email updates), the inclusion of private agency staff in public agency case planning sessions and family group conferencing meetings, and robust referral pathways (and communication) to make families aware of their options with all partners
Together, public and private agency partners that took part in the KTFC pilot were able to increase the number of kinship caregivers interested in licensure, decrease the time from caregivers’ initial engagement to being trained and licensed, and increase the overall number of trained and licensed kinship caregivers. The partnerships also promoted cost savings by facilitating children’s moves from a higher, more costly level of care (e.g., residential or congregate care) to home-based kinship therapeutic care. In addition to the KTFC project, Child Trends recently completed a federally funded evaluation of the Wayfinder Kinnections program, designed to the specifications of the IV-E Prevention Clearinghouse. This evaluation also highlights the benefits of a public-private partnership approach.
Footnote
[1] Policies have been passed to try to increase the percent of children placed with kin, including the recent federal final rule on Separate Licensing or Approval Standards for Relative or Kinship Foster Family Homes. This rule allows states to implement different licensing standards for kinship caregivers. In addition, North Carolina provides most unlicensed kinship caregivers half the room-and-board rate of licensed non-relative caregivers (e.g., foster parents).
Suggested citation
Rushovich, B., Sun, S., & Malm, K. (2025). Public-Private Child Welfare Partnerships Can Facilitate Beneficial Kinship Placements for Children in Foster Care. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/6456r2634o