Kinship care: Issues in permanency planning

Kinship care represents one of the newest paradigms in program options in public child welfare services and is one of the fastest growing segments in the child welfare system. This paper assesses the implementation of the goal of permanency planning articulated in the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), with a group of children placed with relatives by the child welfare system at one year of age or less. The paper compares the outcomes of permanency between infants placed with relatives and children placed in foster care in a middle sized urban/rural county in Upstate NY between April 1993 and April 1994, and followed until April 1996. The aim is to assess the viability of the outcome goal of permanency planning for these children, and identify barriers to the achievement of the permanency goal. The strategies used to address the permanency goal will also be discussed in light of the conditions of case closures and in view of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), that emphasizes the outcome of permanency and shortens the time span to achieve this for all children under care. The implications for service delivery are also discussed.