FORMAL AND INFORMAL KINSHIP CAREGIVING IN PENNSYLVANIA Formal kinship care arrangements are formalized through the dependency courts and child welfare agency. In Pennsylvania, this can take the form of kinship foster care or by finalizing permanency through adoption or guardianship (permanent legal custodianship). In these situations, the child has formally entered the care and custody of the child welfare agency to be placed with a kinship caregiver, who is then provided a range of financial and non-financial supports depending on the arrangement chosen. Formal supports include a per diem for the care of the child and access to in-home and permanency services provided by the child welfare agency. If, after several months, it is determined that the child cannot safely be reunited with the parents, the family court will proceed with an alternative permanency option, such as guardianship (permanent legal custodianship) or adoption, either with or without a subsidy for continued financial support. Under informal kinship care, kin often have no formal support and must navigate federal, state and local systems alone to ensure the children they are caring for have essentials like health care, educational resources, and mental and behavioral health support. And, far too often, they do not receive any, or extremely limited financial assistance to do so. Most kin caregivers raise children informally without the involvement of the child welfare system. At times this is a conscious decision by the kin and other times they are unaware of the option to care for the child formally with more structured supports. Many factors contribute to this decision, including: • the ability to financially support the child independently, • not wanting the intrusion of government, • not wanting the child to be labeled as a foster child, • fear of jeopardizing their relationship with the child’s biological parents and their own children, • prior negative experiences with a child welfare agency, or • utilizing private custody courts without the need for dependency. The involvement of the child welfare system often requires a dependency case to be opened, which the agency may refuse to do if the children are not at risk of abuse or neglect because they are currently safe with a kinship caregiver. At times, the child welfare agency may not discuss the various caregiving options and supports with the kin caregiver or
assess the stability of the placement and will choose to simply close the case; this is referred to as kinship diversion. Additionally, sometimes the child welfare agency intervenes to informally transfer custody to a kin caregiver rather than seeking dependency and proceeding with a licensed kinship placement. This practice raises concerns about a phenomenon called “hidden foster care,” where agencies intervene and coerce custody transfers without providing parents and children the due process to which they are entitled, and depriving families of the opportunity for financial kinship support, reasonable efforts at reunification with the parent and meaningful judicial oversight. xi Despite the issuance of guidance on safety planning and due process by the state, practice remains inconsistent across the Commonwealth. Nevertheless, while “hidden foster care” raises significant concerns, family-led informal kinship arrangements may best suit the needs of some families and may be properly chosen by the family absent duress or coercion from the county agency. What Kinship Grandparents are Saying “The greatest thing about caring for my granddaughter was the joy and overwhelming, never-ending love I felt for and from her.” “I think people need to know that [kinship caregiving] is something they really want to do, because there’s a lot of stress behind it. Being a kinship care grandparent is not easy. There is a lot of responsibility behind it. It’s like raising your child all over again – you are responsible for their well-being, their everything – but it’s more tedious than your own child, because with them being in the court system, there’s a lot of challenges with it. If he gets hurt or anything, or misses appointments, it all comes up. It’s a lot more responsibility.”
To better serve informal kinship caregivers,
Governor Wolf signed Act 89 of 2018 into law. xii This established the Pennsylvania KinConnector program, an information and referral system that connects kin with trained navigators who help them access federal, state and local resources to best assist them with the needs of caring for a child. In addition, the KinConnector program offers training and support groups to connect kin with a network of other individuals with similar experiences.
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Kinship Care in Pennsylvania: Creating an Equitable System for Families – January 2021
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