Kinship Care in Louisiana: What Grandparents and Relatives Need to Know

Most people who become kinship caregivers in Louisiana did not plan to. A grandparent gets a call from a social worker. A grandmother agrees to take her grandchildren after her daughter's arrest. An aunt shows up at a hospital and leaves with a newborn. The placement happens first. The paperwork comes later. And somewhere in the middle, the relative caregiver realizes they do not know what rights they have, what financial support they can access, or what the difference is between having informal custody and being a licensed foster parent.

This post explains how kinship care works in Louisiana — the two distinct legal pathways, what each one provides, and what DCFS expects from relatives who want to be formally recognized in the system.

What Louisiana Law Calls Kinship Care

Louisiana uses the term "kinship care" broadly to refer to any arrangement in which a relative or person with a significant prior relationship to a child is caring for that child outside the child's birth home. Within that broad category, there are two distinct legal statuses that determine everything from your financial support to your legal authority to make medical decisions.

Kinship foster care (also called relative resource care): The relative is fully certified as a DCFS foster parent, the child is formally placed with them through the child welfare system, and the caregiver receives the standard monthly foster care board rate along with the same rights and responsibilities as any other licensed foster parent.

Kinship Care Subsidy Program (KCSP): The relative has legal custody of the child (not through DCFS foster care, but through a family court order), the family does not meet the income threshold required for full foster care reimbursement or prefers not to be under DCFS supervision, and the caregiver receives a flat $450 per month per child if they meet income requirements (household income under 150% of the federal poverty level).

These two pathways are not interchangeable. Which one applies to your situation — or which one you should pursue — depends on how the child came to be in your care, whether DCFS is actively involved, and what legal authority you need going forward.

The Instanter Order: When Placement Happens Without Warning

An instanter order is a Louisiana court order for the immediate emergency removal and placement of a child. In the kinship context, it is the document that appears when a social worker or law enforcement officer shows up at a relative's door and says, effectively, "Can you take this child tonight?"

The instanter order grants temporary emergency custody, usually for 72 hours, while the court arranges a continued custody hearing. It is issued by a judge in the parish where the child was found. The caregiver who accepts the child under an instanter order has legal authority to make emergency medical decisions for that child — they are not simply babysitting.

What the instanter order does not automatically provide:

• DCFS certification as a foster parent
• Access to the full foster care board rate
• The child's Medicaid card or prior authorization for ongoing medical care
• Long-term legal custody

Grandparents and relatives who receive a child under an instanter order are in a genuinely urgent situation. They have the child. They do not have the financial support structure yet. And they are being asked to navigate a legal and bureaucratic system on short notice, often while also managing the emotional fallout of whatever family crisis created the placement.

The first priority after accepting an instanter order is to attend the continued custody hearing, which must occur within 72 hours. You have the right to appear and speak at that hearing as the current caregiver. Bring documentation of your relationship to the child and any information you have about the child's immediate needs.

Kinship Foster Care: Full Certification with Full Support

If DCFS is formally involved and has placed the child with you through the child welfare system, you are operating as a kinship foster parent — or will be once you are certified. The certification process for relatives has some differences from the standard non-relative process:

Age: Kinship applicants may be certified as young as 18 in circumstances where a specific child's safety requires urgent relative placement. Non-relative applicants must be at least 21.

Background checks: All adults in the household must still complete the full multi-layer background check — FBI fingerprints, Louisiana State Police check, State Central Registry search, and sex offender registry verification. Being a relative does not reduce this requirement. Relatives who believe an adult in their household may have a disqualifying history should address this before applying.

Training: Kinship applicants complete the same Deciding Together pre-service training as non-relative applicants. The training content is largely the same, though specialists sometimes adapt the pacing and focus to acknowledge that kinship caregivers often arrive with the child already in the home.

Physical home standards: The same bedroom space requirements, fire safety standards, pool fencing, and hurricane evacuation plan requirements apply to kinship homes.

Board rates: Certified kinship foster parents receive the same monthly board rate as non-relative foster parents. As of the July 2025 update, those rates range from approximately $508 per month for children ages 2 to 5 up to approximately $626 per month for children 13 and older. Children in kinship foster care are also automatically enrolled in Healthy Louisiana (Medicaid).

Louisiana's placement hierarchy in the Children's Code ranks relative placement second only to placement with the non-custodial parent — above certified non-relative foster homes and residential facilities. When DCFS is selecting a placement, a willing and able relative is the presumptive first choice.

The Kinship Care Subsidy Program (KCSP): Financial Help Without Full DCFS Involvement

Not every kinship arrangement involves an active DCFS case. In many situations, a grandparent or other relative obtains legal custody of a grandchild through family court without the child welfare system being formally involved, or a relative obtained custody after a case closed. In these situations, the family may not be eligible for foster care board rates but can access the KCSP.

Who qualifies:

• A relative or person with prior significant relationship who has legal custody (not through DCFS foster care) of a child who cannot be cared for by their birth parents
• Household income under 150% of the federal poverty level

What it provides:

• $450 per month per child

What it does not provide:

• Medicaid for the child (children in KCSP arrangements may be eligible through other programs such as LaCHIP — the Louisiana Children's Health Insurance Program — based on income)
• The full range of services and support available to certified foster families
• The same legal standing in court proceedings as a DCFS-certified foster parent

The $450 monthly figure reflects the legislative cap on KCSP payments. It has not increased in line with the foster care board rate, which means KCSP caregivers receive meaningfully less financial support than certified kinship foster parents caring for children in active DCFS cases. This gap is one reason many kinship caregivers who have obtained legal custody through family court subsequently explore full foster care certification if DCFS re-opens a case or they become eligible.

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: The Specific Louisiana Context

Grandparents are the largest single category of kinship caregivers in Louisiana. The state's opioid crisis, high incarceration rates, and history of family disruption from hurricanes have created a significant population of grandparents raising grandchildren — often older grandparents on fixed incomes who were not planning to raise a second family.

For this population, the financial gap between KCSP ($450/month) and the full foster care board rate ($508 to $626 per month, plus Medicaid and supplemental reimbursements) is significant. The decision of which pathway to pursue often turns on two questions:

1. Is DCFS currently involved in the case? If a DCFS case is open and the grandparent is the designated placement, the path to certified kinship foster parent status and full board rates is available.

2. Does the grandparent have the capacity to complete the certification process? Deciding Together training, physical home standards, and documentation requirements are identical for grandparent kinship caregivers. Grandparents who live in mobile homes, are in their 60s or 70s, or have limited transportation may face practical barriers that require accommodation or support from advocacy organizations.

Resources specifically serving Louisiana grandparents raising grandchildren include:

• AARP Louisiana: Connects grandparent caregivers with support groups and legal resources
• Generations United: A national organization with state-specific resources and the annual "State of Grandfamilies" report
• Louisiana Department of Health KCSP program: The administering agency for kinship care subsidy applications

Your Rights as a Kinship Caregiver

Louisiana foster parents — including kinship foster parents — have specific legal protections under R.S. 46:283, the Foster Parent Bill of Rights. These include:

• The right to receive all known health, medical, and social history about a child before placement
• The right to be notified of and participate in case reviews and court hearings
• 24-hour access to agency staff for emergencies
• The right to be treated as a professional team member in case planning

For kinship caregivers who are not formally certified as foster parents — those relying on an instanter order or informal family court arrangement — these rights do not fully apply. This is one of the practical reasons why completing foster care certification, even after an emergency kinship placement is established, provides better long-term standing in the case.

Getting Help with the Kinship Certification Process

The kinship foster care certification process can feel especially difficult for caregivers who arrived in the role through an emergency placement rather than a planned application. The child is already in the home. The emotional weight of the family crisis is present. And now there is a bureaucratic process to complete while also managing the child's immediate needs.

The Louisiana Foster Care Licensing Guide includes a dedicated kinship section that addresses the instanter order process, how to navigate DCFS contacts when you are already caring for a child, the fastest path to accessing financial support, and the specific ways the certification process differs for relative caregivers. If you are already in the role and trying to understand your options, that is a more practical starting point than the DCFS handbook.

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