Lesson One 1 2 3 4 5
Kinship Care: A Special Kind of Family to Family
As OCS seeks to keep children close to their families, more relatives are becoming foster parents to a child in their extended family. Feelings may be very mixed about the birth parents when that parent is also your sister, or son or a brother.
Kinship placements have increased nationwide over the past 10 years. Some of the reasons for this include increases in alcohol and other drug abuse, parental incarceration, and child abuse (Crumbley, et al). According to the Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support, in 2002 Alaska had approximately 1848 children in state’s custody. Of those, approximately 596 children were in kinship care. The most common type of kinship care placements are grandparents caring for grandchildren.
ALASKA STATUTE: 47.14.100(e) requires OCS to consider relative placement whenever a child is removed and in need of an out of home placement. Additionally, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 mandates OCS to follow specific placement preferences for Alaskan Native/Indian children. Although there are no specific laws requiring OCS to look outside of family placement, whenever a child is removed, efforts are made to place the child with a relative or a person the child is familiar with. These kinship placements help to reduce the amount of trauma children experience when they are removed from their primary caregiver. Additionally, it helps to maintain the continuity of care; and in most cases the child is able to stay in the same community.
If you are a relative caregiver, you have the advantage of making the child feel at home. You may already have a relationship with the child, so he may not feel the intense anxiety or separation that other foster children do. You can keep the child close to his culture, family and his history.
But taking care of your relatives sometimes can put a strain on family relationships. Sometimes tension can arise between you and the child’s parents. You may feel torn between your relative and what the system asks you to do. If you need to provide supervision, your relative may be resentful or ask for more visitations or visitations alone than what the social worker says you can do.
You may also feel a lot of anger and hurt toward the birth parents. You may also have mixed feelings about having the responsibility of caring for children thrust upon you unexpectedly. You may feel angry at the Office of Children’s Services for interfering with your family or perhaps doing things that you feel are harsh or unfair. If you are a grandparent, you may have added financial stress or demands on your physical health.
Kinship families are an important way to keep children connected to their families. But there are special demands placed on the kinship care parents, both from OCS and from the birth parent.
The Grandfamilies Project is an Alaska-wide project through the Volunteers of America that supports grandparents parenting their grandchildren. You can find out more about this project by calling toll free 1-888-522-9866 or e-mailing the project at grands@voaak.org
If you are interested in Kinship Care, the Alaska Center for Resource Families has a self-study specifically on Kinship Care. If you are a resident of Alaska, you may request a copy of this self study "Kinship Care" by emailing The Alaska Center for Resource Families or visiting their website at www. acrf.org
In Lesson Two, we will look at ways to keep children connected to their families. To review the concepts learned in Lesson One, take the Review Quiz on the next page.