Final Rule & Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) concern the Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards. These questions were collected during two Network webinars and through technical assistance requests. The Kin-Specific Standards are the only national model of such standards and were developed to help states take the federal option to implement separate, tailored foster care licensing standards for kinship families. They were created by an array of national organizations, including the Network, and informed by child welfare agencies and kin caregivers. 

The answers have been updated as of January 2025.  

Relevant Webinars:  

• February 25, 2025 webinar at 1 PM ET – to register for this live webinar, go to: https://www.gksnetwork.org/events/kin-specific-foster-care-licensing/  
• April 4, 2024 webinar – to listen to the recording and access materials, visit:  www.gksnetwork.org/events/kin-specific-licensing-progress-so-far/. 
• October 11, 2023 webinar – to listen to the recording and access materials, visit:  www.gksnetwork.org/events/kin-specific-licensure-overview-of-new-federal-rule-release-of-recommended-standards/.  

Frequently Asked Questions 

General Questions 

Definitions of Relative &/or Kin 

Foster Care Maintenance Payments & Other Income Supports 

Criminal Background & Child Abuse Registry Checks 

Approval/Licensing Process & Other Safety Standards 

General Questions 

1. So, just to be clear, relatives will still need to get licensed, but the process just won’t be as time-consuming as licensing for non-related individuals? 

Yes. The intent of the  Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards is that they closely mirror existing kinship placement practices, so the majority of kin could get licensed within days of placement. 

2. Is there any state that is already in alignment with the new federal rule? If so, I wonder how they are doing and if they have increased overall the number of kinship placements in their state and if there are any challenges or implications that may have arisen?  

While no states were in alignment with the federal rule as of October 2023, as of January 2025, several states and tribes have been approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement kin-specific standards and processes. See this map.  

The approved jurisdictions are reporting reduced administrative burden, improved employee experience/retention, and are beginning to see kinship placement percentages improve. In addition to kin-specific approval standards, an agency’s kin-finding practices are critical to increasing kin placement numbers; please see the Network’s Kin-Finding Toolkit for recommended practices. 

3. To update licensing/approval standards, will states need to change their laws or their regulations? 

The answer will depend on the specific agency; some have requirements in law, some in regulation or policy, some in a mix of both. As agencies review their requirements, we encourage thinking about making changes in ways that can increase flexibility, such as moving some requirements and/or definitions from statute to agency policy.   

4. We’ve had full custody of our grandchildren for four years. We chose not to go via foster care due to the red tape and time commitment to be certified. How will this help us going forward? 

This rule specifically applies to licensing or approving kin caregivers for children who are in foster care. While it will not help your family, we are hopeful that this move towards equity for kin in foster care will start a renewed interest in better supporting the many more kinship families who are not child welfare involved. 

5. I already pay kin caregivers full foster care maintenance payments out of the state budget. Why would I want to adopt a new kin approval process? 

Adopting these recommended kin-specific approval standards would substantially reduce the time before your agency can claim title IV-E reimbursement for foster care maintenance payments (FCMPs) for your kin caregivers (assuming they meet all requirements for title IV-E eligibility), providing the same level of financial support to kin caregivers while reducing reliance on your state or tribal funds. Because federal guardianship assistance requires kin to be licensed/approved as foster parents for six months prior to exiting the system, more children and their kin will be able to exit foster care to supported guardianship quicker. Additionally, having a standardized kin approval process across states should make interstate issues, like alignment with the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), significantly easier.  

6. What about my current relative non-safety waiver / exemption / exception / variance process? 

If you adopt these kin-specific approval standards, you will no longer need a licensing exception process for kin. This will save caseworker time and administrative burden. 

7. How else can these kin-specific approval standards impact my workforce challenges? 

Most child welfare systems are struggling with workforce recruitment and retention. These recommended kin approval standards are in line with most title IV-E agencies’ current emergency placement standards. This means you can redirect licensing workers to focus on other tasks. 

Additionally, providing financial support to kin caregivers will increase stability for children, allowing them to remain safely with people who know and love them. Kin placements are associated with fewer placement changes. Increased placement stability reduces additional caseworker intervention and the need to search for new placement resources. Additionally, kin placements show substantial benefits for the mental health and well-being of children in care, which results in fewer behavioral problems and necessary interventions.  

Accordingly, adoption of these kin-specific standards will help mitigate issues related to employee workloads. It will also reduce the percentage of workforce hours spent on bureaucracy, increasing the proportion of a caseworker’s time that is spent on directly improving the well-being of children and families. Adopting kin-specific standards will help to improve workforce satisfaction by making it easier to place more children with the people who know and love them, who receive support for their care, and who are best positioned to help them thrive. 

8. If I adopt these kin-specific approval standards, do I still need to maintain my provisional or child-specific licensing process? 

No. We expect these kin-specific approval standards would fully subsume those other programs. 

9. We have a dedicated kin caregiver engagement unit focused on licensing kin caregivers. If I adopt these kin approval standards, what will they do? 

Existing kin caregiver engagement teams can be re-deployed to support kin caregivers in other ways, such as by identifying community and/or wraparound supports they need to achieve and maintain stability and permanency and engaging the child’s other kin to serve as non-placement support. In New York, there are kin-specific workers who focus on emergency placement and licensing for kin.  

A team focused on kin can assist in the expedient completion of fingerprinting and/or follow up on any emergent post-approval needs identified in the kin caregiver assessment (like a car seat or bed) and could help with the approval process for kin placements that are planned in advance.  

10. What about all the kin currently in the process of getting licensed? 

They will likely consider it good news that they will be eligible for foster care maintenance payments without having to do any more unnecessary appointments or paperwork! 

11. Previously, unlicensed kin caregivers did not have to adhere to our state administrative rules for foster parents unless they became licensed. How does this work now? 

We recommend you work with your legal department to transfer any special privileges or benefits you previously had for “unlicensed kin” to “approved kin.” It may also be worth reviewing these inconsistencies. 

12. In our state, you must be licensed in order to adopt a child from foster care. These kin-specific approval standards do not include proof of marriage and/or divorce documentation, which I understand is required in order to adopt (because if a caregiver is legally married, we need to approve their legal spouse as part of the adoption). Yet you say that an approved kin caregiver should not have to have additional requirements for permanency later. How do I resolve this? 

Marriage and/or divorce decrees can be obtained in the future, when and if adoption is imminent. Courts can also waive the need for this documentation. Collecting it upfront, which can incur significant fees and time delays, is not appropriate or necessary. 

13. Will the new rule affect placements under the ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children)? 

When two title IV-E child welfare agencies both align to the Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards, we are seeing that they experience significantly faster and more streamlined ICPC placements. ICPC timeframes are being reduced from months to days. This is in part because the requirements have been reduced and in part because the two agencies’ requirements should be significantly similar and therefore transferable across state lines. 

14. Will ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) complicate this process? 

No. The National Indian Child Welfare Association has a research brief, Understanding ICWA Placements Using Kinship Care Research, which focuses on the benefits of kinship care for Native children. 

15. There are still some entities that have the outdated belief that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Could specific research citations be provided to help us move the needle in those areas? 

Research shows that children thrive when placed with kin. Check out the Children Thrive in Grandfamilies fact sheet, which summarizes that research. Another resource, Kinship/Grandfamilies: Strengths and Challenges, can also be helpful in educating service providers and others about the unique strengths of kinship/grandfamilies. 

16. Will there be any type of non-retaliation language recommended by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)? We have entities that threaten removal of kids if their caregivers get licensed as foster parents, because they know if they continue placement there the agency will need to make foster care maintenance payments. They threaten to move the children to other (unlicensed) kin. 

Non-retaliation language is not publicly available from ACF. We encourage you to reach out to your regional offices for guidance.   

Definitions of Relative &/or Kin 

17. Will there be any changes regarding the definition of “kin”? 

The kin-specific model standards include a recommended definition of “relative foster parent” for purposes of who can qualify for emergency placement and the kin-specific approval or licensing process: “Individuals related to a child by blood, marriage, tribal custom, and/or adoption and other individuals who have an emotionally significant relationship with the child or the child’s parents or other family members.” Many agencies already have a similarly inclusive definition, while others would expand who can qualify for kin-specific licensing if they adopt our recommended definition. ACF has made clear that the definition of “relative” and/or “kin” is at the jurisdiction’s discretion.  See Child Welfare Policy Manual, 8.3A.8c  TITLE IV-E, Foster Care Maintenance Payments Program, Eligibility, Facilities requirements, licensing, Q/A #22. 

18. Does the significant emotional relationship have to have occurred prior to placement or would friends of a child’s foster parents count as kin? 

The recommended definition of “relative” in the model standard leaves this open to interpretation and further definition by agencies. We remind agencies that having an expansive definition of who counts as a relative for purposes of leveraging the kin-specific licensing or approval process does not mean that agencies cannot prioritize certain kin over others. A child whose only significant emotional relationship is with their foster parents’ friends, for example, may benefit greatly from including these adults as kin. 

19. I am concerned that having such an expansive definition of kin for purposes of approval will put family members, especially Black and Brown family members, at a disadvantage compared to white, wealthy foster parents who might qualify as kin after having placement for a while. 

For purposes of who can qualify for kin-specific approval, we firmly recommend an expansive definition that includes any adult with whom the child or the child’s family has a relationship. But when it comes to which of numerous potential caregivers or permanency options a system may consider, you are free to prioritize placement and permanency with certain categories of relations over others. 

20. Is there a difference between a “Relative Foster Family Home” and a “Kinship Home” at the Federal level? 

There is no difference between a “kinship” or “relative” foster home at the federal level. You can define this however your agency wants. It can be more confusing to staff and policy to have both; most agencies have one definition or are in the process of combining them. 

Please note that doesn’t mean that you still can’t consider the nature of the relationship in your practice – we encourage an expansive definition for who could potentially qualify for the kin-specific licensing process, but your agency can prioritize an available grandma over a teacher for placement absent extenuating circumstances. You can also have different definitions for different purposes; for example, you may not want the same definition of “relative” for purposes of the new rule as you do for purposes of satisfying the federal requirement to identify and notify all adult relatives when a child is removed from their home.  

21. What if my approved kin caregiver wants to take in non-kin placements? 

This recommended approval process applies to kin caregivers. A kin caregiver seeking to provide non-kin care would have to go through the traditional foster parent licensing process in your system. 

Foster Care Maintenance Payments (FCMPs) & Other Income Supports 

22. If the child is not income-eligible for title IV-E reimbursement, do we give the kin caregivers FCMPs? 

Yes, using your own non-federal funds — the same FCMP that you would give to a non-kin caregiver for a child who is not income-eligible. 

23. Have income requirements that children must meet to qualify for title IV-E foster care maintenance payments been updated?   

No, income requirements are still based on the 1996 guidelines. The child must still be income-eligible to qualify for title IV-E. 

24. Will this impact Medicaid eligibility? 

No; if anything, it will be easier for children with kin in foster care to get Medicaid, along with a host of other services and supports. 

25. Does approval impact a kin caregiver being able to claim a child as a dependent on their taxes? 

If the child is in foster care with a kin caregiver, the caregiver can claim the child as a dependent on their federal tax return regardless of whether the caregiver is approved or licensed as a foster parent and regardless of whether they are related to child by blood, marriage or adoption.  

For a caregiver who is raising a child outside of foster care to claim them as a dependent on their tax return, the child must be living with the caregiver for at least half the year, be financially supported by the caregiver for at least half of their expenses, and be related to the caregiver or be the caregiver’s step-relative. See https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/dependents for the rules.

26. What about children in the legal custody of the child welfare system that are placed with kin? In my state you receive a specified relative grant. Can those families be transitioned to this program? 

Yes, agencies can transition existing kin caregivers into their kin-specific licensing or approval process. In some cases, current kin caregivers will have already met all the requirements and can be transitioned swiftly; in others (such as agencies that do not currently conduct fingerprint-based checks on unlicensed kin caregivers), additional steps would be required for the transition. 

27. If the children are not in child welfare custody any longer, but the kin caregiver is in need of financial assistance and it is hard finding community assistance, are they allowed to apply for support? 

The Kin-Specific Approval Standards apply only to kin caregivers of children in the legal custody of the child welfare system. We encourage agencies to provide information to kin caregivers for children who are not involved in the foster care system about financial and other supports available, such as child-only TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Adequate support for kin caregivers caring for children without child welfare involvement can and should prevent any reentries into the foster care system. 

28. How will this impact state TANF budgets? Will a state’s share in TANF go down? 

A state’s portion of the TANF block grant is still the same as it was when TANF was created in 1996. This new guidance would not change a state’s TANF share, but it may increase the amount available in TANF budgets because states will not need to spend child-only TANF funds to provide support for approved kin caregivers of children in foster care. 

From the final rule in September 2023: “The cost analysis prepared for the February 2023 NPRM addresses costs under the title IV–E foster care program. We also note that while the TANF program does, to some extent, allow use of funds for payment of foster care maintenance payments for a child in foster care when placed with a relative, those funds are provided through a block grant that would not be reduced if some such cases were no longer being paid through TANF funds. Therefore, the rule would not result in a cost impact for the TANF program.” 

29. Will there be any additional supports for kin who step in to provide care for minor relatives prior to out-of-home placement by a child welfare agency? For example, will anything change for a grandma who takes in her grandchildren to prevent them from being placed in out-of-home care with unknown foster parents and is then only eligible for child-only Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)? 

The kin-specific model standards apply only to kin caregivers of children in the legal custody of the child welfare system. Financial and other supports differ dramatically around the country. For what is available where you live, begin by referring to the GrandFacts fact sheet for your state, territory, or tribe. Also, do not hesitate to reach out to the specialists at the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network for promising practices in other areas, which you may be able to replicate. 

30. There’s a child-only TANF. Is there anything like that for SNAP benefits where the caregiver’s income will not be part of the approval process for qualification? 

At this time, Minnesota’s Family Investment Program is the only one in the country we are aware of that offers a child-only Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program combines SNAP with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), allowing for both family and child-only assistance. 
 
The kin-specific model standards explicitly do not include income requirements or verification for kin caregivers. We do encourage agencies to help identify kin caregivers who could benefit from financial or other supports beyond foster care maintenance payments and to connect them to those resources. 

Criminal Background & Child Abuse Registry Checks 

31. Is it up to the states to screen out kin with felonies? 

Agencies are required to conduct background checks on potential kin caregivers. See the Standards for a list of automatically disqualifying felony convictions under the federal Adam Walsh Act.  Many states currently also screen out kin for other crimes, but that is not required by federal law or by the Kin-Specific Standards. 

32. At the federal level, is a National Sex Offender Registry check required or is the state search we currently use okay? 

The federal government doesn’t require the sex offender registry check at all. We included it in the kin-specific approval standards since every state is already performing this step. Continuing your current process is okay. 

33. What should I do about kin caregivers who have disqualifying federal crimes and are not eligible for foster care maintenance payments, yet are court-ordered placements? 

While this small population is not eligible for title IV-E reimbursement for foster care maintenance payments (FCMPs), title IV-E agencies can choose to provide these caregivers with the full FCMP amount using state or tribal funds. You can run data on how many of these placements you currently have to determine the budget impact, which is likely very low.  

If the caregiver is not eligible because of a five-year drug-related or assault or battery felony conviction, we recommend keeping track of when the five years expire, so that you can apply for title IV-E reimbursement at that time. 

34. Can a kin caregiver be licensed or approved if another adult resides in the home and has Adam Walsh felony convictions? 

Under Adam Walsh, disqualifying criminal history only applies to kin caregiver(s) and not to any other adults in the home. However, the criminal histories of any other adult(s) in the home can be taken into consideration when evaluating each placement, and a placement could be conditional on the adult moving out of the home. 

35. Do we have to check US Territories for out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry checks? 

Yes, if the territory maintains a child abuse and neglect registry. For the purposes of title IV-E, a “State” is defined in 45 CFR 1355.20 as the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.² At the time of this answer, the U.S. Virgin Islands is the only territory that does not maintain a registry. Therefore, the territories you would have to check are Puerto Rico, Guam, and/or American Samoa (if an adult you are assessing lived there in the last five years), as well as the District of Columbia. 

36. I can initiate a background check the same day I place a child, but I have no control over when I get results back. It can take months. Can I start paying foster care maintenance payments from day one of placement as long as I initiated the background check? 

Yes. While we recommend that title IV-E agencies pay full foster care maintenance payments (FCMPs) from day one of placement, ACF has made clear that an agency may only claim title IV-E FCMPs (on behalf of an otherwise eligible child) after the kin caregivers’ criminal records check have been completed. Prior to receiving the results of fingerprint background checks and out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry checks, title IV-E agencies that pay FCMPs will need to do so with other funds. 

37. Current licensing rules in our state do not allow a caregiver to be issued a foster home license if anyone in the home is on Central Registry (CR) for abuse or neglect. However, our policy allows for placement to occur with a relative caregiver when the parent on CR resides or will reside in the relative home. With the federal rule change, can we “approve” and claim IV-E on those cases where no one in the home has a IV-E prohibited felony conviction but there is an adult household member on the Central Registry? 

The federal requirement, which the Kin-Specific Standards mirror, is that you check the registry. There is no federal or Kin-Specific requirement that there be no history. Under these Kin-Specific Standards, you should evaluate the caregiver, the history, and the child(ren) holistically to determine the impact of this history on the ability to safely care for the child. In some situations the history might be concerning enough to not make a placement, but in other cases, that would be a great placement.  

38. If an adult in the home was a child when they lived in the other state, would they still require an Adam Walsh check? 

No. This only applies if the other adult in the home was an adult at the time they lived in another state. 

39. Grandma was fingerprinted in January 2017 and approved. She currently has Ashley. In February 2018, Grandma still has Ashley, and now Ashley’s newborn sister Jennifer moves in. Does Grandma have to get re-fingerprinted? 

Agencies can define their own policy on this. In this situation, since the kin caregiver is currently an approved kin caregiver with a current kin placement, we would not see the need to repeat background checks, but the agency may want to conduct a fresh kin caregiver assessment with the new child in mind, in case the kin caregiver needs new supports (such as an infant car seat, formula, or new safety items). 

40. Grandma was fingerprinted in January 2017 and approved. Ashley lived with her for two years, then went back home to her mother. Four months later, Ashley needs to re-enter foster care and Grandma is open to being her placement. Does Grandma have to get re-fingerprinted? 

Agencies can define their own policy on this. We would encourage flexibility that allows reusing prior approval materials. For example, if the kin caregiver in this scenario lived in another state in the last 5 years, your agency already requested and received the out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry request from that other state, and, if the kin caregiver has not left your state since the check was completed, there would be no need to repeat the same out-of-state request. Similarly, you may be able to reuse the caregiver’s original fingerprint results, as your in-state criminal records checks would surface any new history. If the caregiver did have findings that had to be evaluated and approved by the agency, that same evaluation could be resubmitted instead of started over. 

41. Heather is an approved kin caregiver. She falls in love quickly and gets married. Her new husband moves in, and in her romantic stupor, she forgot to tell the agency about her new husband. As soon as she remembers, she tells the agency, and he is fingerprinted and approved as a caregiver. Does the agency need to forego IV-E for the period of time between the new husband moving in and him being approved?  

Agencies can define their own required timeframe for conducting a background check on a new adult caregiver or adult in the home. If an agency exceeds the timeframe in its own policy, then it could be subject to foregoing or returning title IV-E funds. A common agency policy is a 30-day window to notify the agency of a new adult. 

42. Heather is an approved kin caregiver with a 17-year-old son. How long after his 18th birthday does he have to get criminal background checks before the Department would lose IV-E funds? If the Department policy is to review background checks once a year, is it okay to wait until this annual check to do his background check? 

Agencies can define this in their own policies. For example, some agency policies require a background check on the son within 30 days of his 18th birthday. Other agencies only require a background check on the son during the annual or every-two-years reviews of the home.  

43. When do out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry check requests apply for traveling nurses and military personnel who have a primary residence in our state but “live” in other states temporarily?  

It depends on how your state defines residency. If you consider the nurse or member of the military to be a resident of your state, then they were not also “living” in the other state where they were temporarily. 

If the person was a travel nurse or member of the military prior to moving to your state, you would use their official residence(s) for the prior five years, not every individual place they went. 

44. In agencies that use mobile fingerprinting machines, does the worker have to physically bring the machine back to headquarters to access results? This would create significant hardship and travel time for our workers.  

This does not have to be the case. Mobile machines without Wi-Fi capabilities would need to be plugged into a physical Internet connection, but this could be achieved at a worker’s home, local office, or community-based location, not necessarily headquarters. 

45. Are efforts to approve relatives IV-E reimbursable, similar to how recruitment can be reimbursable? For example, is fingerprinting reimbursable? Could efforts to encourage timely completion of fingerprinting or other approval steps, such as offering a cash incentive, be reimbursable? 

Yes. Federal regulations [45 CFR 1356.60(c)(2)] allow title IV-E agencies to claim costs associated with recruitment and licensing as administrative costs under title IV-E. As fingerprinting is a condition of licensure or approval, costs associated with conducting fingerprint background checks are reimbursable as title IV-E administrative costs. Costs associated with providing incentives to complete the fingerprinting process are potentially allowable, but only as part of an approved cost allocation plan. 

Approval/Licensing Process & Other Safety Standards

46. At the federal level, is an application for kin required? 

An application is not required under federal law. The Kin-Specific Standards include a kin caregiver application form to use or cross-reference against your own form.  

47. Do I require a contract to pay kin caregivers? 

Not necessarily. Many agencies do not have contracts with their kin caregivers. 

48. Our child welfare division conducts the initial safety assessment and background check. Does our licensing unit have to repeat these steps? 

Absolutely not. These recommended approval standard steps need only be completed once, and there is no requirement that they be completed by your licensing division in order to be considered approved. 

49. Should my agency conduct additional home assessments beyond the initial kin caregiver assessment done at approval? 

Agencies are free to conduct additional internal steps for some or all families, but we do not recommend additional steps as part of the kin approval process. An additional assessment conducted later — for example, to evaluate multiple kin caregivers as permanency options — may be appropriate, but it should not be considered part of the approval process. 

Further steps should not be attached to the provision of foster care maintenance payments. If an agency believes additional steps are necessary to prevent potential harm, it should first rigorously consider whether there are any other options to mitigate the risk that would not delay or deny children the opportunity to live with people who know and love them. If the agency determines an additional step is still necessary, any step should be co-designed and iteratively improved upon with real kin caregivers representing a diverse range of races, ethnicities, tribal affiliations, religions, ages, classes, and geographic areas. 

50. Do kin caregivers have to complete any training prior to being licensed or approved? 

No, we explicitly did not include any required training as part of the Kin-Specific Approval Standards. We do encourage agencies to make all training available to kin caregivers as optional supports and to create and/or implement kin-specific trainings as optional supports. However, these standards do not require training prior to licensing approval. See this list of training curricula for ideas. 

51. The Social Security Act requires that foster parents receive training on the reasonable and prudent parent standard. As a part of Ohio’s waivers, we clarify that kin can receive this training after licensure. How will this look for creating a separate process for kin licensure? 

The Social Security Act requires that a foster parent “be prepared adequately” to use the reasonable and prudent parenting standard, and it explicitly allows for this preparation to continue after placement. Many agencies accomplish this goal through a conversation at placement and, potentially, leave-behind materials. The kin-specific model standards do not suggest (and, in fact, actively discourage) agency requirements of formal training on this topic prior to licensing or approving kin caregivers, instead encouraging agencies to make this information and training available for kin caregivers, preferably after approval. 

“[T]he prospective foster parents will be prepared adequately [emphasis added] with the appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of the child and that the preparation will be continued, as necessary, after the placement of the child, and that the preparation shall include knowledge and skills relating to the reasonable and prudent parent standard for the participation of the child in age or developmentally-appropriate activities, including knowledge and skills relating to the developmental stages of the cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities of a child, and knowledge and skills relating to applying the standard to decisions such as whether to allow the child to engage in social, extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities, including sports, field trips, and overnight activities lasting 1 or more days, and to decisions involving the signing of permission slips and arranging of transportation for the child to and from extracurricular, enrichment, and social activities” 42 U.S. Code § 671(a)(24) 

52. There have been questions about having opposite-gender siblings sharing bedroom space. Best practice would be that they should have different bedrooms because of age, child development, etc. Is there guidance on this in the Kin-Specific Standards? 

Yes, the kin-specific standards include guidance around this issue that was informed by national experts in child psychology, development, and abuse. Please see Kin Caregiver Assessment Form, page 40 for “Sleeping Arrangements.” In short, the standards include flexibility for opposite-gender siblings sharing sleeping space. The standards also replace the concept of a “bedroom” with a “sleeping space.” 

53. Is there an age standard for a kin caregiver? Can an 18-year-old care for their younger sibling if they pass the other basic standards? 

The Kin-Specific Approval Standards explicitly do not have an age standard, as long as the kin caregiver is an adult. So yes, an 18-year-old could potentially be approved as a kin caregiver; age alone should not be disqualifying. 

54. With no age standard, are approval/licensing decisions just based on opinion? How do you avoid discrimination with only your assessment and no regulation to back it up? 

The Kin-Specific Approval Standards explicitly do not have an age standard, as long as the kin caregiver is an adult. Age alone should not be a disqualifying factor. A concern that a kin caregiver would not be an appropriate placement due to age-related conditions, such as  Alzheimer’s, can be considered as part of the Kin Caregiver Assessment.  

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