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Policy Updates Victory: Vital Children's Health Coverage Protected June 30, 2008 Passed (House): Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act June 25, 2008 Passed (House): Fostering Connections to Success Act June 24, 2008 News: Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act Filed June 18, 2008 CDF Calls President Bush's FY09 Budget Shameful February 4, 2008

Latest News Child Welfare & Mental Health "Advancing Kinship Care" Washington Times, July 2, 2008 "Raise foster care age-eligibility to 21" The Hill, July 15, 2008 Child Health NPR compares health care for pregnant women in the U.S. and France July 10, 2008 Education "The Next Kind of Intergration" New York Times, July 20, 2008 CDF signs "A Bolder, Broader Approach" Statement Child Poverty "Edelman Renews Call to Help Poor Children" Toledo Blade, April 17, 2008 CDF Report Finds Low-Income Families Lose Billions to Predatory Commercial Tax Preparers March 26, 2008 Juvenile Justice "Investing In Our Nation's Youth" Louisiana Weekly, July 28, 2008  "Mass Incarceration of Children Must End" Huffington Post, July 3, 2008

Home > About Us > Policy Areas > Child Welfare and Mental Health Division > Kinship Care (Grandfamilies)

Kinship Care Families (GrandFamilies)

Kinship care families and GrandFamilies both describe grandparents or other relatives raising a child when his or her parents are unable to do so.

Sometimes a child is removed from his parents’ care by the state and placed with a GrandFamily within the formal foster care system. In other cases, children are placed informally with relatives.

Alcohol and drug abuse, child abuse and neglect, incarceration, domestic violence, military service and illness are some of the reasons children come to live with GrandFamilies.

More than 6 million children are being raised in households headed by grandparents and other relatives. 2.5 million of those children live in households without any parents present.

The Kinship Caregiver Support Act

The Kinship Caregiver Support Act (S. 661/H.R. 2188) is bipartisan legislation introduced in both the Senate and the House to assist the millions of children who are being raised by their grandparents and other relatives because their parents are not able to care for them. 

Learn More:

• Kinship Caregiver Support Act: Questions and Answers (PDF, 41 KB) May 2007
• Summary of Kinship Caregiver Support Act (PDF, 35 KB) May 2007
• Provisions of the Kinship Caregiver Support Act (S. 661/H.R. 2188) (PDF, 42 KB)

Take Action: Do something that will really give caregivers a reason to celebrate Granparents Day on September 9 — call your Members of Congress the week of September 10 and urge them to co-sponsor this important bipartisan legislation.

Children's Defense Fund
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