H.R. 9878: Help Grandfamilies Prevent Child Abuse Act

This bill would update the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to give more attention and support to children being raised by relatives or close family friends, often called kinship families or grandfamilies, especially when those children are not in the foster care system.

What it aims to do

The bill is focused on making federal child welfare programs better recognize and support families where children are being cared for by grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, other relatives, or family friends because the children’s parents cannot care for them.

Main changes

• Expands who federal advisory groups must include. It adds organizations that serve kinship families, as well as birth parents, kinship caregivers, and former foster youth, to the advisory board on child abuse and neglect.
• Improves information-sharing. It requires the national child abuse information clearinghouse to work with the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network to spread information about effective practices for supporting children in kinship care, whether or not they are in the child welfare system.
• Changes how grant recipients are expected to work with kinship families. States, tribes, and other grant recipients would need to make their procedures reflect the needs of children placed with relatives, prioritize placing children with kin when appropriate, involve kin as supports, help kin become licensed foster parents when needed, support permanent family arrangements, and build community support networks for kinship families.
• Requires more attention to kinship placements in state plans. State child abuse prevention plans would need to explain how kinship placements are prioritized and include kinship navigators among the services that can be supported.
• Changes reporting requirements. States would have to count children who did not receive services because they were diverted from the child welfare system to live with relatives outside foster care.
• Updates community grant purposes. Community-based prevention grants would explicitly be allowed to support the needs of kinship families raising children inside or outside foster care.
• Expands local program requirements. Local programs would need to provide services to families where children are being raised by relatives because their parents cannot care for them.
• Adds training topics. Programs would need to include training for kinship caregivers on caring for children with behavioral or mental health challenges, finding services they may qualify for, understanding substance use disorders, and understanding how trauma affects children.
• Expands who can be included in program outreach and education. It adds kinship caregivers and foster care alumni to certain program participation and information efforts.

Overall effect

In practical terms, the bill would push federal child abuse prevention programs to treat kinship care as a distinct situation and provide more tailored support to relatives and other caregivers raising children outside the foster care system. It does not create a new standalone program; instead, it amends existing federal law to adjust priorities, planning, training, outreach, and reporting.

Relevant Companies

None found