When are out-of-home placements appropriate, and what is the role of kinship care?
Traditionally, out-of-home placements have been used where a child is a victim of or at risk of abuse and neglect. Increasingly, out-of-home placements are a combination of formal foster care and less formal kinship or relative care. While relatives may be qualified and reimbursed as foster care parents, many states are opting to provide assistance through TANF. This approach may be preferred in some states since TANF grants are generally less costly than foster care payments and because kinship care may not be subject to the review and permanence provisions that govern foster care. In that case, TANF can be provided either for the relative caretaker and the children or for the children alone. If assistance is provided for the caretaker and the children, the caretaker family will be subject to TANF rules, including time limits and work requirements. Birth parents may choose to place their children with relatives on a voluntary basis. In the case of a teenage parent, assistance may only
