Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in Kentucky: What You Need to Know

Most grandparents raising grandchildren in Kentucky didn't plan for it. A crisis hit — a child's parent dealt with addiction, incarceration, mental illness, or sudden death — and within days or weeks, a grandparent was the primary caregiver for a child who needed them. The system catches up later, and usually not in a way that makes sense to someone encountering it for the first time.

This is what you need to know about the practical side: what financial support exists, how licensing works, and what DCBS's role is when a grandchild comes to live with you.

The Scale of the Problem in Kentucky

Kentucky's opioid crisis has driven a significant increase in kinship care placements. Approximately 25.9% of the state's child removal cases involve parental drug use as a documented factor — and that's just the cases that reach formal removal. Many grandparents are raising grandchildren informally, outside the DCBS system entirely, with no financial support and no legal authority to make medical or educational decisions.

As of 2025, approximately 8,735 children are in out-of-home care in Kentucky. The state's own kinship care data shows that a substantial portion of those placements are with grandparents and other relatives, and DCBS's "KinFirst" policy formally prioritizes family placements over traditional, unrelated foster homes.

Two Pathways: Informal vs. Formal

Informal/private arrangement: The child's parent voluntarily leaves the child with you. There is no DCBS involvement. You have no legal authority — schools may refuse to give you information, doctors may require parental consent, you can't enroll the child in Medicaid without the parent's cooperation. There is no financial support from the state.

Formal placement through DCBS: The child is formally removed by DCBS and placed with you as a kinship caregiver. You have legal authority for day-to-day decisions under the placement agreement. You can access the child's Medicaid, enroll them in school, and receive financial support through the state.

If you're currently in an informal arrangement and struggling, contact DCBS. The fact that the child is living with you and the parent is not providing care is itself a reason to file a report — and it often opens the door to formal support.

What Financial Support Is Available

Once you are a formal DCBS kinship placement, you have access to:

Kinship Care Program (unlicensed rate): If you haven't yet completed full foster care licensure, you may receive a lower flat-rate payment through the Kinship Care Program. A 2024 Kentucky Youth Advocates report found 83% of kinship providers say this support is inadequate — the rate does not reflect actual child-rearing costs.

Licensed foster parent per diem (higher rate): Once you complete full foster care licensing under 922 KAR 1:350, you receive the same daily per diem as any other licensed foster parent. Following the federal Glisson court ruling, licensed kin receive parity with traditional foster families:

That difference — unlicensed kinship vs. licensed foster per diem — can be several hundred dollars per month. Completing licensure is worth pursuing as quickly as possible.

Additional allowances: At placement, you receive an initial clothing stipend ($100 for an infant, up to $290 for a teenager). Annual school clothing stipends ($50–$100), birthday stipends ($25), and Christmas stipends ($60) also apply for licensed placements.

Medicaid: Every child in DCBS custody is automatically enrolled in Kentucky Medicaid. This covers medical, dental, and mental health care.

Child care subsidy: If you work, you can access state-funded child care through the Division of Child Care (DCC-85 approval form) for a grandchild in formal placement.

Expedited Placement Before Full Licensure

Under Kentucky's KinFirst program (DCBS SOP C8.1), grandparents and other relatives can take placement immediately using an abbreviated safety check (DPP-1277) while working toward full licensure. This is specifically designed for the reality of kinship care — you can't be asked to wait six months for full licensing when a grandchild needs a home today.

The expedited placement is a bridge. You're still expected to complete the full licensing process: background checks, TIPS-MAPP training, home study, financial disclosure, references. But the child can come to you while that process unfolds, and you receive the formal placement designation (and access to financial support) from day one.

The Licensing Process for Grandparents

The requirements are the same as for any foster applicant under 922 KAR 1:350:

Background checks for all household members: FBI fingerprint via IdentoGO (~$54/person), Kentucky State Police records, Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) registry check for everyone age 12+, and Sex Offender Registry check. If you've lived outside Kentucky in the past five years, out-of-state CAN checks are required.

TIPS-MAPP pre-service training: 30 hours, typically in ten three-hour sessions. The training covers trauma-informed care, attachment, the reunification model, and behavior management. It's specifically designed for adults new to the foster care system — most content is directly relevant to grandparents caring for grandchildren affected by parental SUD or neglect.

Home study: Interviews with all household members, physical inspection of the home (smoke detectors, locked firearms and medications, adequate sleeping space, safe heating), financial disclosure, and references.

Common inspection failures in rural Kentucky: wood stoves or space heaters without proper guarding, well water without potability documentation, firearms not separately locked from ammunition. Address these before the inspection.

What DCBS's Role Is — and Isn't

When your grandchild is in formal DCBS placement, a social worker (SSW) is assigned to the case. They manage the case plan — what the birth parent must do to work toward reunification — and they visit your home regularly.

DCBS's primary goal is reunification with the birth parent, not adoption by you. This is the part that surprises many grandparents: even when the parent has a serious addiction or has caused harm, DCBS is legally required to provide services and work toward family reunification. The child may return to their parent and come back to you, and then return again.

Concurrent planning means DCBS prepares for both outcomes simultaneously. Grandparents who understand this from the start — that reunification is the goal, not the exception — handle the emotional complexity better than those who assume the child's placement with them is permanent.

If the parent does not make progress on the case plan, DCBS may petition for Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) after the child has been in out-of-home care for 15 of the last 22 months. At that point, the child becomes legally available for adoption, and as the placement caregiver, you have preference in the adoption proceedings.

Getting Support

KAFAP (Kentucky Foster and Adoptive Parent Training Support Network), managed by Murray State University, has regional liaisons across all nine DCBS service regions. They provide training, peer support, and resources specifically for people inside the system. If you're a grandparent with a newly placed grandchild, contact your regional KAFAP team — they can help connect you with local support groups and navigate the licensing process.

Kentucky Youth Advocates tracks kinship policy and publishes annual data on kinship care funding and support gaps. Their "Kinship Across KY" reports are worth reading for context on what systemic advocacy is happening.

Facebook groups — "Kentucky Foster Parent Support" and "Fostering Kentucky" — have active membership with a large proportion of kinship caregivers, including grandparents sharing real-time information about DCBS processes and reimbursement updates.

If you need a step-by-step guide to the full licensing process as a kinship caregiver in Kentucky, the Kentucky Foster Care Licensing Guide covers the KinFirst pathway, documentation requirements, home safety prep, and the DCBS workflow in plain language.

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