Kinship Caregivers & The Hidden Foster Care System

Kinship caregivers (primarily grandparents raising their grandchildren) are often functioning as a shadow foster care system. We talk with Josh Gupta-Kagan, a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law and author of America’s Hidden Foster Care System in the Stanford Law Review, and Karissa Phelps, a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow at Temple Legal Aid, where she provides legal representation and services to kinship caregivers.

In this episode, we cover:

In many cases, child protection agencies induce parents to transfer physical custody of their children to kinship caregivers by threatening to place the children in foster care.
How often does this happen?
Why do you call this the “hidden” foster care system?
Generally speaking, don’t we consider it best practice for kids to remain with extended family? So why is this a problem? Is it inherently coercive?
What are the advantages to encouraging placement with kin before they enter the formal foster care system?
What are the risks?
If this transfer takes place outside of the system, how long does it last? How can children go home? Who decides?
How does this differ from informal kinship care?
How does The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 contribute to the “hidden foster care system”?
Do you see kinship placements increasing?
What are child welfare agencies doing to support kinship families?
Follow the money: Is it less expensive for agencies to place with kin rather than unrelated foster parents?
How is foster care funded?
What is the status of kinship navigator programs?
How can we best support kinship families?
What do you see as the biggest challenges to kinship families?