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Kinship Care for African American Children

Disproportionate and Disadvantageous

University of Washington, Tacoma

Ada Skyles

Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, IL

To highlight the individual and systemic practices that perpetuate the overuse of and reliance on kinship care and instead emphasize family reunification as the permanency plan for African American children in the child welfare system, the authors first discuss how kinship care is affected by federal child welfare policy and provide a historical perspective on how that policy has evolved. They then discuss the number and proportion of African American children entering the child welfare system and receiving kinship foster care, distinguishing between formal and informal kinship care. The conclusion addresses implications for practice and research, including the need to reevaluate child welfare policies, and demonstrates that kinship care is overused and detrimental for African American children.

Key Words: African American children • kinship care • disproportionality • African American families • relative foster care

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