Why It Matters
A new Congressional Research Service report reveals that 2.6 million children in the United States currently live in kinship care, full-time arrangements where grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends provide care when parents cannot. That represents approximately 4 percent of all U.S. children. Millions of children depend on relatives who are older, poorer, and more likely to be people of color than the general population, yet federal support systems remain fragmented and inadequate to meet their needs, according to CRS.
The Big Picture
Kinship care has become a de facto safety net for children whose parents face military service, mental health crises, substance use disorder, or incarceration. Most children enter these arrangements informally, with families handling arrangements on their own without formal court involvement. Some flow through the formal foster care system, where courts place children with the child welfare agency, which then places them with kin. Others exit foster care to live with relatives through informal arrangements, legal guardianship, or adoption.
The demographics tell a story of concentrated vulnerability. Sixty-five percent of kinship caregivers are age 50 or older, compared to just 18 percent of all U.S. children living with older adults.
Children in kinship arrangements skew older: 38 percent are ages 13 to 17, compared to 30 percent of all U.S. children in that age range.
The racial composition reveals another layer of disparity. Black children represent 29 percent of the kinship care population and American Indian/Alaska Native children 5 percent, both overrepresented relative to their share of the general child population. White children make up 36 percent, Hispanic children 25 percent, Asian children 3 percent, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander children 2 percent.
Geographic patterns show concentration in specific regions. Mississippi leads all states with 9 percent of its children in kinship care, followed by New Mexico at 8 percent. Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, and South Carolina each report 6 percent. The lowest rates appear in Iowa and Nebraska, each at 1 percent.
Political Stakes
Current law provides multiple pathways for federal support. Children in kinship care are generally eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families if living with a grandparent or other kin. Children in formal foster care placed with a licensed kin caregiver may access Title IV-E foster care support. Those who exit foster care to live with licensed kin caregivers may qualify for Title IV-E guardianship assistance if their caregiver becomes their legal guardian.
As of early fiscal 2024, states gained authority to design unique foster care licensing standards for kin caregivers, a change that could expand or contract eligibility depending on how states implement it. Federal law has increasingly recognized kinship care through legislation such as the Fostering Connections Act and the Family First Prevention Services Act, signaling bipartisan acknowledgment that relatives represent a critical child welfare resource.
Kinship navigator programs, which help relatives find and access services, remain underfunded and inconsistently deployed. States may compete for Title IV-B funds to evaluate and implement these programs, and may receive federal support for evidence-based versions under Title IV-E, but uptake remains uneven. Navigator programs may serve kin with or without any prior connection to the child welfare agency, creating both opportunity and confusion about eligibility.
Title IV-E currently supports foster care, permanency assistance, and may fund services to prevent foster care entry and kinship care, but the mechanisms for doing so remain opaque to many states and families. Millions of children depend on aging, economically stressed relatives with limited access to coordinated support.
The Bottom Line
The CRS report documents a massive, underserved population of American children and the relatives raising them. Without deliberate action, millions of children and their older, poorer, often-minority caregivers will continue operating outside the formal support systems designed to help them.
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