What Is Kinship Care? Formal, Informal, and Everything in Between

You got a call — from a social worker, a family member, or maybe a judge — and within days, a child you love is living in your home. You didn't apply to be a foster parent. You didn't attend training. You just said yes.

That's how most kinship care begins. And what happens next — which benefits you can access, what legal authority you hold, how the agency treats you — depends almost entirely on what type of kinship arrangement you're in.

Here's what every relative caregiver needs to understand before they take another step.

Kinship Care Is Not a Single Thing

The term "kinship care" covers a wide spectrum of arrangements. At one end: fully licensed formal foster care with a state agency holding legal custody and monthly maintenance payments flowing your way. At the other: an informal private arrangement with no paperwork, no agency, and no financial support of any kind.

Where you fall on that spectrum determines almost everything.

Formal kinship care happens when a child welfare agency removes a child from their home and places them with a relative. The state holds legal custody. You, as the relative caregiver, are expected to become a licensed foster parent — completing a home study, background checks, and state-mandated training. In exchange, you receive the same monthly maintenance payments as any non-relative foster parent, which averages between $915 and $1,622 per month nationally, depending on the child's age and needs.

Subsidized guardianship sits in the middle of the spectrum. It's designed for children who cannot be reunified with their parents and for whom adoption isn't the right fit. A relative takes legal guardianship through the court — removing the child from foster care — while still receiving a monthly subsidy and Medicaid coverage through the Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP). As of 2026, 43 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 12 Indian tribes have approved GAP plans. The subsidy is generally comparable to foster care maintenance payments.

Informal kinship care is the most common arrangement and the least supported. A parent voluntarily places their child with a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend due to illness, substance use, incarceration, or other crises. No agency is involved. The birth parent typically retains legal custody. The caregiver has no formal authority and receives no automatic financial support.

How Many Children Are in Kinship Care?

The numbers are larger than most people realize.

As of September 2024, approximately 329,000 children were in the formal foster care system. Of those, 39% — roughly 127,000 children — were placed with relatives in formal kinship care.

But the formal system is just the visible portion. Outside the system, approximately 2.5 million children in the United States are being raised in households where grandparents, relatives, or family friends serve as primary caregivers with no parent present. If you include all children living with relatives in multigenerational homes, the number reaches 7.8 million.

These informal caregivers collectively save American taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year by keeping children out of the formal foster care system — yet they often receive little or no financial support in return.

Grandfamilies: When Grandparents Step Up

A subset of kinship care has its own name: grandfamilies. These are households where grandparents serve as the primary caregivers for grandchildren.

In 2023, approximately 2.1 million grandparents were responsible for the basic needs of their grandchildren. The demographic picture is striking: 63% are women, 55% are still in the workforce, and nearly 60% are age 60 or older. About 18% of grandparent caregivers live below the federal poverty line.

The reasons grandparents step up rarely follow a tidy timeline. The opioid epidemic has been a significant driver — in 2000, drug addiction accounted for 15% of foster care entries; by 2017, that figure had risen to 36%. Parental incarceration is another common trigger, particularly when a mother — often the child's primary caregiver — is no longer available.

Grandparent caregivers often describe the experience as "being hit by a truck" — sudden, disorienting, and deeply exhausting, even as it comes from a place of profound love.

Why Informal Caregivers Face the Biggest Struggles

The gray area of informal kinship care is where most families live — and where the fewest protections exist.

Without a court order, a relative caregiver may find it difficult to:

• Enroll a child in school (many districts require specific "care and control" documentation)
• Authorize medical treatment, including routine vaccinations
• Apply for Medicaid or CHIP on the child's behalf
• Secure accommodations for special education needs
• Travel internationally with the child

The financial gap is equally stark. Informal caregivers may qualify for a TANF "child-only" grant — which averages about $328 per month nationally — but many never receive it due to complex paperwork and lack of awareness. Meanwhile, licensed formal kin receive over $1,600 per month on average.

Despite this, research consistently shows that children placed with relatives have better outcomes than those placed with non-relative foster parents: stronger connections to cultural identity, more stability, and fewer placement disruptions.

Relative Caregiver vs. Licensed Foster Parent: What Changes

Becoming a licensed kinship foster parent is not required in every situation, but it changes your status dramatically:

A recent federal rule from the U.S. Administration for Children and Families now allows states to set foster family home licensing standards that are specifically tailored to relatives — waiving certain non-safety requirements like bedroom size minimums or specific square footage thresholds. Many caregivers who believed they couldn't meet licensing standards are now eligible.

What the Right Legal Status Means for Your Family

Understanding where your arrangement falls on the kinship care spectrum is the first step toward accessing the full range of support available to your family.

If you're in informal care, your most urgent priority is securing some form of legal authority — even a limited Power of Attorney or a Relative Caretaker Affidavit — so you can make day-to-day decisions for the child without a crisis at the school office or emergency room.

If you're in formal kinship care, understanding your rights within the child welfare case — including your right to notice and the opportunity to be heard at court hearings — is essential. You are a critical participant in the child's permanency plan, not just a placement resource.

The Kinship & Relative Care Navigation Guide walks through each arrangement type in plain language, with checklists, legal templates, and step-by-step instructions for accessing the financial benefits available at each level of the spectrum — from TANF child-only grants to GAP subsidies to the federal tax credits most families miss.

The Bottom Line

Kinship care is not one thing. It's a continuum defined by varying degrees of legal authority, state involvement, and financial support. Informal relative caregivers — the largest segment — often bear the greatest burden with the least institutional help.

Whether you're a grandmother who said yes to a midnight phone call, an aunt who stepped in after an overdose, or a family friend who has always been "Uncle" to a child who needed a home — knowing exactly where your arrangement stands is the foundation of protecting yourself and the child you love.

The children thrive because you showed up. Make sure the system shows up for you, too.