Kinship Care in Kentucky: How the KinFirst Program Works

When a Kentucky child is removed from their home, state law requires DCBS to look to family first. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, close family friends — these are the people Kentucky's child welfare system calls "kinship caregivers," and the state has built a specific pathway to get them licensed faster than traditional foster applicants.

That pathway is called KinFirst.

What Is KinFirst?

KinFirst is Kentucky's formal policy of prioritizing relative and "fictive kin" placements over traditional, unrelated foster homes. Fictive kin includes people with significant emotional connections to the child — a longtime neighbor, a teacher, a coach — not just biological relatives.

The driving principle under DCBS SOP C8.1 is that keeping a child connected to known adults reduces trauma. A child removed from an addicted parent and placed with their grandmother still has continuity: familiar faces, familiar routines, familiar culture. That matters for developmental outcomes.

As of 2025, Kentucky has approximately 8,735 children in out-of-home placements and fewer than 4,516 licensed foster homes. With that shortfall, kinship homes are not just preferred — they're urgently needed.

Expedited Placement Before Full Licensure

One of the most important features of the KinFirst program: kin can take placement immediately using an abbreviated safety check (form DPP-1277) while they work toward full licensure.

This matters because the standard DCBS licensing process takes six to nine months. When a grandchild is removed on a Tuesday, no family can wait six months for placement. The DPP-1277 allows a rapid safety assessment — does the home have obvious hazards? Is there a history of abuse or neglect? — after which placement can proceed while the full licensing process continues.

You are still expected to complete full licensure. The expedited placement is a bridge, not a bypass.

Financial Parity: The Glisson Decision

Before the federal Glisson court ruling, unlicensed kinship caregivers received significantly lower reimbursement than licensed traditional foster parents. Kentucky has since aligned its policy: licensed kin now receive the same per diem rates as traditional foster parents.

Current rates (effective July 1, 2024):

For children with specialized needs, Care Plus pays $47.49/day and Medically Complex placements can reach $108.64/day for specialized cases.

Kinship caregivers who remain unlicensed receive lower flat-rate payments through the Kinship Care Program. The financial difference between unlicensed and licensed is significant — getting through full licensure is worth it, and DCBS offers support to help kin get there.

Completing Full Kinship Licensure

Once you've accepted expedited placement, you'll work toward the same licensing requirements as any other foster applicant under 922 KAR 1:350:

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

Pre-service training — 30 hours of TIPS-MAPP curriculum, plus supplemental modules including Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma (PAHT), First Aid, Medication Administration, and Safe Sleep (if you may care for infants). For kinship caregivers who took placement urgently, finding time for 30 hours of training while caring for a newly placed child is genuinely hard. KAFAP (the Kentucky Foster and Adoptive Parent Training Support Network) has regional teams that bring training closer to rural caregivers.

Home study — interviews with all household members, physical inspection of the home, financial disclosure, and three personal references plus two credit references.

Common home inspection failures for rural Kentucky properties include unguarded heating sources (wood stoves, space heaters), well water without potability documentation, and firearms without proper separate locked storage. Address these before your home study visit.

What Kinship Caregivers Often Don't Know

You can ask for a home study to be expedited. If your situation involves immediate family and the DPP-1277 safety check is complete, push your R&C worker to prioritize the full evaluation. Caseworkers are managing large caseloads — being organized and responsive moves you up the queue.

The 83% problem. A 2024 Kentucky Youth Advocates report found that 83% of kinship providers said financial support is inadequate. The gap is usually the period between initial placement and full licensure, when you may be caring for a child but receiving only the lower unlicensed rate. Document your costs from day one and pursue licensure aggressively to close this gap.

DCBS is different from the courts. Many kinship caregivers conflate DCBS supervision with the court process. DCBS manages the case plan and placement; the DNA (Dependency, Neglect, and Abuse) court manages legal proceedings including parental rights. Both affect your situation, but they operate independently. Understanding the difference prevents a lot of confusion at case conferences.

Reunification is still the goal. Even when you're the grandparent, aunt, or family friend raising this child, DCBS is working toward reunification with the birth parent unless there's a specific legal reason not to. Concurrent planning means they're simultaneously preparing adoption as a backup — but "concurrent" doesn't mean equal weight. Foster parents and kinship caregivers who understand this emotionally handle the process far better than those who are blindsided by reunification efforts.

Getting Support as a Kinship Caregiver

KAFAP (Kentucky Foster and Adoptive Parent Training Support Network) is managed by Murray State University and provides training, support groups, and regional liaisons across all nine DCBS service regions. KAFAP is specifically designed for people who are already in the system — if you've just taken placement of a grandchild, contact your regional KAFAP team.

Kentucky Youth Advocates tracks kinship policy at the state level and publishes annual data on kinship care funding. Their "Kinship Across KY" report is worth reading if you want to understand the systemic gaps.

Facebook groups like "Kentucky Foster Parent Support" and "Fostering Kentucky" include a large proportion of kinship caregivers sharing real-time information about DCBS processes, per diem updates, and licensing navigations.

If you're a grandparent or relative who has just taken in a child and needs a step-by-step roadmap for getting licensed in Kentucky, the Kentucky Foster Care Licensing Guide covers the full KinFirst pathway — including home safety requirements, background check prep, and the documentation DCBS needs from kinship applicants specifically.

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