Raising Kids Of Relatives Could Bring Federal Funds

Under the changes, families who receive guardian payments must be monitored by the foster care system for at least six months before custody is finalized. Because of their familiarity with the children, relatives generally do not require as much intervention or monitoring by social workers. After that, caseworker visits and court appearances stop, which social service administrators said will help preserve scarce resources.

Indeed, an 11-year pilot program in Illinois found that encouraging 10,000 guardianship placements saved the state $200 million between 1997 and 2008.

Guardian payments would vary by state but would be no more than the state's monthly foster care payments, which range from $300 to $600 a child.

In particular, the changes will soften the landing for many children taken from their homes, allowing them to lead somewhat-normal lives without caseworker visits and court appearances, advocates and experts said. Such children are also less likely to be bounced from one foster home to another while a permanent solution is sought.

"We want children to be in as normal circumstances as possible as they're growing up in foster care," said Chauncey Strong, executive director of community services for Annandale-based Phillips Programs. "Going to court [and] having a caseworker at your house once a month are not normal circumstances."

State officials initially began to explore the idea of kinship care in the late 1980s, at the height of the crack-cocaine epidemic that devastated many poor, inner-city neighborhoods. In numerous cases, relatives became makeshift foster parents. With a surge in the number of abused, neglected and abandoned youngsters, child welfare workers widened the pool of foster parents by aggressively recruiting relatives and slightly relaxing the stringent guidelines that apply to foster homes for kinship care providers. The new law furthers those efforts.

The legislation also increases financial incentives for states to increase their adoption rates for older children and teenagers. Virginia, for instance, lags behind other states in its rate of getting them permanent homes.

Fewer than half of Virginia children who enter the system after age 12 find permanent homes.