Kinship Care in Virginia: What Relatives Need to Know Before Taking Placement

When a child is removed from their home in Virginia, the LDSS does not reach for the foster care placement list first. By statute, they look for family. Code of Virginia § 63.2-900 establishes a preference for placing children with relatives — grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, and other kin — over non-related foster families when it is safe to do so.

For relatives who receive that call, the decision typically has to be made fast and without much preparation time. What follows is what you need to understand about how kinship care works in Virginia, what financial support you can access, and how the licensing decision affects everything.

Licensed vs. Non-Licensed Kinship Placements

Virginia has two categories of kinship placement, and the difference has significant financial and legal consequences.

Licensed kinship foster home: A relative who goes through the full VDSS licensing process — completing the Mutual Family Assessment, NTDC pre-service training, background checks, and home safety inspection — is approved as a licensed foster home. Licensed kinship caregivers receive the same monthly maintenance stipend as non-relative foster parents: $521 per month for children ages 0–4, $609 for ages 5–12, and $772 for teenagers 13 and older, plus VEMAT enhancements if the child has elevated care needs.

Non-licensed (informal) kinship placement: In urgent situations, a relative can take a child on an emergency basis before completing full licensing. The LDSS may place the child on a provisional basis while the relative undergoes an expedited safety assessment. However, non-licensed kinship caregivers are not entitled to the same monthly maintenance payments as licensed foster parents. Financial support in these arrangements is typically limited to a smaller per diem or assistance through the TANF program (if the relative takes legal custody and applies for benefits in the child's name).

The practical implication: if you are a grandparent or other relative who receives a placement call, starting the formal licensing process as soon as possible — even if you take the child on an emergency basis first — dramatically improves the financial support you will receive.

The Kinship Licensing Pathway

Virginia law recognizes that relatives often need to take children quickly, before completing the standard training timeline. VDSS policy allows for an expedited kinship assessment that prioritizes safety screening over the full multi-month process. The expedited assessment typically covers:

• Background checks on all adults in the home (VSP, FBI fingerprinting, child abuse registry, sex offender registry)
• A home safety check focusing on the most critical standards (medications, firearms, smoke detectors, bedroom arrangements)
• A basic family assessment interview

This expedited track does not permanently waive the training requirements. Kinship caregivers who enter through the fast-track process are typically required to complete NTDC training after the child is placed, within a set timeframe determined by the LDSS.

For barrier crime disqualifications, Virginia acknowledges that kinship care situations often involve complicated family histories. Under Code § 63.2-1721, some non-violent offenses may be waivable if ten or more years have elapsed and there is evidence of rehabilitation. The state's preference for kinship placement creates some flexibility in how waivers are evaluated in family situations versus non-related applicants.

Financial Support for Kinship Caregivers

The financial landscape for kinship caregivers in Virginia changed materially in 2024 with the passage of the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program by the Virginia General Assembly. This program creates a legal pathway to financial assistance for relatives who obtain legal guardianship of a child from foster care — a middle option between full foster care licensing and adoption.

Prior to the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program, relatives who took legal guardianship rather than adopting generally lost access to ongoing financial support. The new program allows qualifying kinship guardians to receive ongoing monthly payments and Medicaid coverage for the child, similar to adoption assistance, without requiring the termination of parental rights or full adoption.

The program is federally supported under Title IV-E, which means it is sustainable and not dependent solely on state appropriations. Eligibility requires that the child has been in foster care for a minimum period and that the LDSS has determined that reunification and adoption are not appropriate permanency goals for that child.

For grandparents and other relatives who want to provide a permanent home for a relative's child without severing birth family legal ties entirely, the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program represents a significant improvement over what was previously available in Virginia.

The Role of the LDSS in Kinship Placements

Your local LDSS manages kinship placements in its jurisdiction. When you take in a relative's child, you will be assigned a caseworker who is responsible for the child's case plan. This relationship is different from what most people expect — the caseworker works for the department, not for you, and their primary obligation is to the child and to the court's case plan, which initially focuses on reunification.

This can create friction for kinship caregivers who have their own opinions about the birth parent's fitness or the reunification timeline. The most effective approach is to treat the caseworker as a professional partner: document concerns in writing, participate actively in family team meetings, and keep the focus on the child's needs rather than family conflict. The caseworker shortage in Virginia is real — as many as 71% of local departments reported difficulty recruiting and retaining caseworkers in the 2019 JLARC review, and vacancy rates have remained elevated — which means responsive documentation from you helps maintain continuity when caseworkers change.

Kinship Care and the Path to Adoption

If reunification fails and the court terminates parental rights, kinship caregivers who are licensed foster parents are typically the preferred adoptive family for the children in their home. Virginia's placement preference under § 63.2-900 carries through the TPR process — the child's existing bond with the kinship caregiver is a significant factor in adoption proceedings.

Kinship adoptions in Virginia follow the same two-step process as other foster-to-adopt placements: TPR in the J&DR District Court, followed by adoption finalization in the Circuit Court. Kinship adoptive parents should negotiate adoption assistance before finalization, as children who are federally IV-E eligible carry adoption assistance eligibility that continues after the adoption is final.

Getting Support as a Kinship Caregiver

Taking in a relative's child — often with little notice, sometimes in the middle of a family crisis — is one of the most challenging care situations in the foster care system. Virginia has several support resources specifically for kinship caregivers:

• Virginia Kinship Support Program: Operated through local LDSS offices and some contracted agencies, it provides training, respite care options, and peer support groups specifically for kinship families
• VEMAT assessments: If the child has significant care needs, pursue a VEMAT assessment early — the enhanced payment can make a material difference in whether the care arrangement is financially sustainable long-term

For a complete guide to Virginia's kinship licensing process, financial support options, the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program, and the path to adoption, see the Virginia Foster Care Licensing Guide.

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