Kinship Care Hawaii: How Relatives Become Licensed Caregivers

In Hawaii, when a child enters Child Welfare Services (CWS) custody, the very first question the department asks is: where is the extended ohana? Who in the child's family network can step forward?

This is not informal policy — it is written into Hawaii statute. Under HRS §587A, blood relatives and hanai relatives (those who have played a substantial caregiving role) are given explicit legal preference over unrelated licensed caregivers when it comes to placement. Kinship care is the foundation of how Hawaii's child welfare system is designed to work.

What Kinship Care Means in Hawaii

Kinship care means a relative or close family associate assumes licensed caregiving responsibility for a child who cannot safely remain with their biological parents. In Hawaii, "relative" is defined broadly:

• Blood relatives: grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, older siblings
• Adoptive relatives: same legal standing as blood relatives
• Hanai relatives: adults who have performed a substantial role in the child's upbringing, as recognized by the court

The placement hierarchy in Hawaii law goes: blood/adoptive relatives first, hanai relatives second, siblings and psychologically bonded adults third, and only then unrelated licensed resource families. This ordering matters — if you are a relative and a child is placed with an unrelated family, there may have been a process failure, and you have standing to raise that with CWS.

The Provisional Certificate of Approval

The most important thing kinship caregivers need to know is this: you do not need to be fully licensed before a child can be placed with you.

Hawaii offers a provisional certificate of approval that allows placement to happen immediately, for up to 60 days, while the relative caregiver completes the full licensing requirements. This matters enormously in an emergency — when a child is removed and relatives want to take them in, the 60-day window means the child does not have to go to a stranger's home while paperwork is processed.

To access the provisional approval:

1. Contact CWS immediately when you learn a relative's child has entered the system
2. Express your willingness to serve as a caregiver
3. CWS will initiate the emergency assessment and, if there are no immediate disqualifiers, issue the provisional certificate
4. During the 60-day window, complete the full licensing requirements: background checks, H.A.N.A.I. training, health clearances, and home study

The 60-day provisional period does not replace the licensing requirements — it reorders them so the child is safe with family first. You will still need to complete everything a general resource caregiver completes, but you can do so while the child is already in your home.

What Kinship Caregivers Are Entitled To Financially

Here is where many kinship caregivers in Hawaii are missing out: informal family care — taking in a relative's child without a license — receives nothing from the state. No board payments. No clothing allowance. No Med-QUEST coverage for the child.

Formal kinship licensing unlocks all of the same financial support available to unrelated resource caregivers:

• Monthly board rates: $649–$776 per month depending on the child's age
• Annual clothing allowance: $810–$1,026 per year
• Difficulty of Care supplement: Up to $570 per month for children with complex needs
• Med-QUEST: Full medical, dental, behavioral health coverage for the child
• Mileage reimbursement: For transporting the child to court-ordered services

For a grandparent who has been informally raising a grandchild — often the situation in Hawaii's ohana networks — formal licensing can mean the difference between financial strain and genuine stability. The monthly support across the year adds up to $7,788–$9,312 in board payments alone, before the clothing allowance and other benefits.

The Research on Kinship Care in Hawaii

A 2026 study from the University of Hawaii found that kinship placements improve placement stability for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) children specifically — a population that is significantly overrepresented in Hawaii's child welfare system. Children placed with kin showed better outcomes in placement continuity, family connection, and cultural identity preservation compared to non-kin placements.

This research reinforces what the ohana framework has always understood: children do better when they remain connected to the people and culture they belong to, even when their immediate household has experienced crisis.

Unique Challenges for Kinship Caregivers

While kinship care has clear advantages for children, relatives stepping into a caregiving role face some challenges that unrelated resource caregivers typically do not:

Pre-existing family dynamics: You are not just a caregiver — you are already a family member. Navigating the relationship with the child's birth parents (who may be your own adult child, sibling, or other relative) while maintaining appropriate caregiving boundaries is emotionally complex.

Speed of the process: Emergency placements can happen faster than a relative's housing situation, employment, or family life was prepared for. The 60-day provisional window helps, but it is still a compressed timeline.

Cultural expectations: In Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, taking in a relative's child is often simply what ohana does. The idea that the state needs to certify and license this is sometimes experienced as bureaucratic intrusion. The financial benefits of licensing are real and significant, but accessing them requires engaging with a system that can feel foreign to traditional family arrangements.

Hawaii Kinship Caregiver Support Services

Once licensed, kinship caregivers have access to the same support network as all resource families:

Resource Caregiver Warm Line (operated by Catholic Charities Hawaii):

• Oahu: (808) 545-1130
• Neighbor Islands: 1-866-545-0882
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: 7 days a week, 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM

Family Programs Hawaii: Offers support groups specifically for kinship caregivers, recognizing that the experience of caring for a relative's child is distinct from general foster care.

Catholic Charities Hawaii Statewide Resource Families (SRF) program: Provides training, case support, and resource coordination for licensed caregivers statewide, including on the Neighbor Islands.

If a relative's child has entered CWS custody and you want to step forward, act quickly. Contact your island's CWS licensing unit, ask specifically about the kinship placement process and provisional certificate of approval, and get your name in the system as a willing caregiver before a placement decision is made.

The Hawaii Foster Care Licensing Guide includes a kinship-specific chapter covering the provisional approval process, how to navigate family dynamics as a licensed caregiver, and how to access every financial benefit you are entitled to.

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