Kinship Care Handbooks and Publications
Kinship Care
Handbooks and Publications
Click on a category below to see the website listing
Kinship Legal Guardianship
Publications:
Document Resource Library
09/11/2007
NJ Child Welfare Citizen Review Panel Annual Report
The mission of the New Jersey Child Welfare Citizen Review Panel (NJCWCRP) is to improve the safety, well being and permanency of NJ children by examining the practices, policies and procedures of State and local agencies, and to evaluate the extent to which they are effectively meeting their child protection responsibilities.
The mission is accomplished through building a constituency
for child welfare and soliciting public comment to assess the impact of the
policies and practices of the State child welfare system upon children and
families. The Panel shall issue an annual report of its findings and
recommendations to the State for improvements in the NJ child welfare
system.
01/14/2007
Kinship Legal Guardianship: A Permanency Option in DYFS Cases
The Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) has placed
a child in your home. You may be related to the child, a close friend of the
family or perhaps the child is unrelated but has been in your home for a
long time. Your DYFS case manager has explained that it is unlikely the
child will return to his parents. DYFS is asking you to make a permanent
commitment to raise this child. You have lots of questions. What are your
options? What financial supports will be available to you? It is important
for you to understand the different permanency options available to you and
the child in your home. You should learn about all the options, the
financial supports available with each, and how those supports may affect
other benefits you receive before making your final decision. This guide
gives you an overview of one permanency option -- kinship legal
guardianship (KLG) as a first step toward making this all- important
decision. It also provides information about adoption supports.
11/16/2008
NJ Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect Citizen Review Panel Annual Report
(2006)
04/08/2004
Is the child of a relative or close friend living in your
home? Has the child been living with you for more than the last 12 months?
Is this arrangement likely to continue? Do the parents have serious problems
that prevent them from caring for their child? Are you willing to raise the
child to adulthood? If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you may
want to become the child’s kinship legal guardian. The Kinship Legal
Guardianship law, which went into effect in January 2002, allows you -- the
caregiver -- to become the child’s legal guardian. That means you act, in
almost every way, like the child’s parent.
04/30/2002
02/2005
Placement of Children With Relatives
In order for States to receive Federal payments
for foster care and adoption assistance, Federal law requires that they
"consider giving preference to an adult relative over a nonrelated caregiver
when determining placement for a child, provided that the relative caregiver
meets all relevant State child protection standards."
(Placement refers to the placing of a child in the home of an individual other
than a parent or guardian or in a facility other than a youth services center.)
Approximately 24 States and Puerto Rico give
preference or priority to relative placements in their statutes. Approximately
five States, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands make no reference to placement with relatives pending permanent
placement of a child removed from his or her parents' home. The remaining States
use statutory language such as "may consider" placement with relatives.