This document discusses kinship care in Florida. There are three types of caregivers for children - foster parents, relative caregivers appointed by a court, and informal kinship caregivers. Over 500,000 children in Florida live with grandparents or other relatives, with 345,000 living with relative caregivers and 145,000 in informal kinship arrangements. The problems include a lack of process for notifying family when children enter foster care, difficulty for family to gain custody after a child is placed in foster care, and inequalities in subsidies that provide more funding to foster families than relative or kinship caregivers. To address these issues, the document calls for laws requiring family notification before placements, equalizing subsidies between caregiver groups,

1. KINSHIP CARE
Presented by Susan Farver
Kinship Connect
susan@kinshipconnect.org

3. The 3 Types of Caregivers
• Foster Care – Non-relative caregiver selected by the state.
• Relative Caregiver- Appointed family member by a court in a
dependency case. This can be a first generation family member or
a close family friend.
• Kinship Caregiver – Is an informal arrangement outside of the
court. No legal authority appoints this care. It is a relationship
between the bio parents and the grandparents or relative to care
for the child.

4. Florida – The Situation
• Over 500,000 children under age 18 live in homes with
grandparents or other relatives.
• 345,000 children live with a relative care giver/grandparent
• 145,000 reportedly living with a grandparent as a kinship
arrangement

5. The Problems
• The state of Florida and many other states in the United States do
not have a process for locating family. Consequently children are
placed in foster care early on after shelter and the family doesn’t
know about it.
• It’s very difficult to get the child after it’s been placed in a foster
home. One of the bio parents needs to complete a 12 month case
plan to regain custody. Maybe then you can help!
• There is a huge issue with inequality with respect to subsidies for
kinship and relative caregivers. Foster families receive the largest
sum. Relative caregivers get a much smaller amount and informal
kinship receives $0

6. What Needs To Happen
• Laws to require each county to establish a process to locate and
notify family members before placement or permanent placement
of a child.
• Legislation to equalize the subsidy between the caregiver groups.
Fair and equal for all including kinship.
• More advocacy programs funded by the state. Programs are
primarily run as non-profit agencies that do not have regular
funding and ultimately fail. There are only a few consistent
sources, Kids In Distress in Broward and Legal Aid in Broward

7. It’s Going To Be Okay!

9. Kinship Connect
Susan Farver, President
susan@kinshipconnect.org