Last year, The Imprint reported on the Biden administration’s new rule that permits states to develop an alternative path to approving kinship caregivers with federal funding to support those placements.
Renowned child welfare researcher Mark Testa called it “the most important advance the federal government has made in kinship care policy in the last 40 years.” Advocates for kinship care quickly developed model standards for states and tribes to use.
Late last month the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the first state and tribe have had their alternative path to licensing kin approved: Michigan and the Salt River Pima Tribe of Arizona.
“It is often grandparents who step up to care for a grandchild when that child’s parent can’t. We must be partners with those grandparents and support their commitment to care for the child while a parent gets back on their feet, so more children don’t end up in foster care,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, in an announcement about the approvals. “Michigan’s robust support for kin caregivers has made it a national leader. The approval of Michigan’s plan means more kin caregivers will receive the financial support they deserve when caring for family members.”
Keeping children who are removed from their homes with relatives is hardly new territory for child welfare systems. Kin can become licensed like any other foster parent, and every state has some path for more informal placements with kin. The big development here is that once a kin-specific licensing protocol is approved by HHS, states can now tap into the Title IV-E entitlement to help pay for those placements.
The Biden rule to some extent codified what one federal circuit court had already made clear in a case called D.O. v Glisson, where the 6th Circuit ruled that even if Kentucky kin were not formally licensed, the state would have to provide financial support to them. It is not surprising that Michigan is the first state approved under the Biden rule: after the Glisson ruling, Michigan quickly developed a plan to better support relatives.
That doesn’t guarantee by any means that states will always use this path, of course. Many systems are comfortable placing kids with unlicensed relatives, at least for short stays, and providing low or no fiscal support to them. Even with federal IV-E money flowing, it is more costly to a state to rely on a licensed kinship caregiver than a more informal arrangement.
But Youth Services Insider hears from those close to the push for new state licensing standards that about two dozen states are moving towards federal approval, and that there are only a few states that have yet to express interest in developing kin standards.