Kinship Caregiver Coalition

What is Kinship Care?

Kinship care refers to a temporary or permanent arrangement in which a relative or any non-relative adult who has a relationship or bond with the child is caring for that child in the place of its parents.

Kinship care includes relationships established through an informal arrangement, legal custody or guardianship order, foster care placement or kinship adoption. Kinship care arrangements often occur because the child's parents are either unable or unwilling to provide parental care because of death, incarceration, domestic violence, unemployment, poverty, or drug abuse. According to the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Task Force Report, issued by the Ohio Department of Aging, grandparents are the largest group of kinship caregivers.