Foster Care is Family Restoration

 

This guest post is from Anne Darby Keating, Regent Law 2L:

    Modern-day foster care is often split into two categories: traditional foster care and kinship care. Kinship care is where relatives of the foster child take the child in rather than the child becoming a ward of the state and living with an unknown foster family. In South Carolina “kin” to the child could be a relative or a family friend or a neighbor (known as “fictive kin”) (S.C. Code Ann. § 63-7-2320). In the past, kinship caregivers could not receive state funding that traditional foster parents could because of a federal regulation requiring the same licensing for kin and non-kin foster parents alike. In September 2023, the federal Administration for Children and Families released a new regulation that allows states to have different licensing procedures for kin and non-kin (and therefore allows kinship caregivers to receive funding).

          Allowing tailored licensing could have a positive impact on children, allowing those they already know and love to care for them. Generally, children in kinship care have better outcomes than those with strangers. Virginia is currently considering a bill that would mirror the new federal regulation and allow kinship caregivers funding along with traditional foster parents. The new federal regulation still requires certain requirements for kinship caregivers, although there are fewer requirements than traditional foster parents. The regulation still requires background checks. Allowing kinship caregivers equal funding with foster parents allows children to remain with people and in environments that they know, lessening disruption and trauma in young lives.

Nevertheless, relaxed rules for kinship caregivers may hurt children. Prior to the new bill in Virginia, the lax rules for kinship care allowed Virginia’s child welfare service to place children with “kin” without bringing parents into court. In South Carolina, children can be placed with “kin” before the kinship caregivers are licensed (S.C. Code Ann. § 63-7-2320), which could further traumatize children either by abuse in the kinship placement or by another forceful removal if the kinship caregiver fails his/her background check. Further, kinship placements may allow abuse to continue by parents or family members.

Kinship care is widely regarded as better for the child. Allowing kinship caregivers access to funding that is available to traditional foster parents will likely increase stability in children’s lives. However, children deserve safety as well as stability and permanence. Relaxed licensing standards may lead to further abuse.