RICHMOND, Va. – A new report reveals that more progress is needed in Virginia to increase family placements for children in the foster-care system.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 81% of kids in Virginia who are separated from their parents are staying with a foster family or relative, an increase of 10 percentage points over a decade. However, the report says progress is stagnant when it comes to getting kids placed with relatives, which offers better chances of permanency than with non-relatives.
Allison Gilbreath, a policy analyst for Voices for Virginia’s Children, said state leaders have an opportunity to increase support for family placements.
“We are in the exact same place we were 10 years ago,” she said. “We have not made any movement in putting more children into kinship care, even though there is overwhelming data and research that shows children do better when they’re with relatives.”
Nearly 5,000 children are in Virginia’s foster-care system. Nationally, there’s been a 5 percentage-point increase in the number of children placed in foster families in the past decade.
Rob Geen, director of policy and advocacy reform for the Casey Foundation, said more support is needed to encourage family placements because the research shows that yields the best results.
“When children are placed with relatives, they’re more likely to finish school, they’re more likely to be employed or find employment later, they’re less likely to become early parents,” he said. “They’re more likely to succeed in families when they have families of their own. That is one trend which is really important – we’re using relatives more.”
Gilbreath said the foster-care maintenance payment in Virginia for a non-relative is $700 a month, but family members caring for kids aren’t eligible for that support.
“Kinship caregivers do not receive that financial assistance,” she said. “That does need to be changed. Some kinship care[givers] really can’t afford to take on the financial responsibility of raising the child, whether it be temporarily or for the long term.”
Gilbreath said the child-welfare system also is least likely to place black children in family settings. She added that she hopes a new federal law, the Family First Prevention Services Act, will give more resources to states to help ensure that children are in homes that best address their needs, and that their caregivers are supported.
The report is online at aecf.org.
