Eligible Kentuckians who are raising their grandchildren will receive Kinship Care benefits once again, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday.
All 15 of the state’s Area Development Districts (ADD) will be able to participate in the program, Beshear said, thanks to an increase of federal funding.
Interested grandparents can contact their nearest ADD to see if they qualify. Or, contact the Department for Aging and Independent Living in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
“There are many loving grandparents that want to make sure that that child is in a home with their relatives and a home where they’re loved,” Beshear said. “And we are grateful that those grandparents are willing to step up and take on that responsibility.”
From 2020-2022, relatives raised 59,000 Kentucky kids, according to Annie E. Casey Foundation data. Kentucky grandparents cared for 58,000 of those youth in 2021.
“We want to make sure every Kentucky child is in a loving home that is stable, that puts them on the path to prosperity,” Beshear said. Benefits will be available to “grandparents of any age who are raising grandchildren who meet certain income and other guidelines.”
What happened to Kentucky’s Kinship Care benefits?
The benefits were previously cut because of budget restrictions. At that time, Kentucky Youth Advocates and a slew of other organizations and people signed a letter begging for the benefits to be reinstated.
More than 60,000 Kentuckians help raise young relatives. A relative could get custody in cases of deployment, death, drug addiction, child abuse, homelessness, incarceration and more. At that time, 9% of all children in foster care were kinship fosters.
In 2017, a bipartisan bill to restore Kinship Care never got a hearing. It would have given relatives caring for child $300 per month, per child.
In April 2019, the Department for Community Based Services started letting relative caregivers get foster parent approval.
This story may update.
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Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
