Permanency & Kinship
The Objective
The ultimate goal of child-serving systems should be to ensure every child experiences safe, stable, lasting family connections that preserve identity, attachment, culture, and belonging. Permanency is not simply a legal outcome—it is the lifelong presence of supportive, committed relationships that allow children to thrive emotionally, developmentally, and socially.
Kinship care plays a critical role in achieving this objective by maintaining family bonds, reducing trauma, preserving cultural identity, strengthening sibling relationships, and increasing placement stability for children who cannot safely remain at home.
The Current Approach
Current permanency systems often prioritize procedural timelines and legal outcomes over relational stability and long-term healing. Children may experience multiple placements, prolonged uncertainty, disrupted sibling relationships, or institutional placements before permanency decisions are finalized.
Although kinship placements are increasingly recognized as beneficial, relatives and fictive-kin caregivers frequently encounter barriers to licensing, financial support, legal assistance, access to services, and inclusion in decision-making. Systems often remain more structurally aligned to support non-relative foster placements than family-based alternatives.
Policy & Systems Impact
Many permanency efforts continue to focus on compliance-driven outcomes rather than addressing the root causes of instability within families and communities.
Policies determine whether relatives are identified early, whether families receive prevention services before removal occurs, whether reunification is adequately supported, and whether kinship caregivers receive equitable financial assistance and services.
Investments in family finding, kinship navigation, caregiver support, post-permanency services, and relational permanency can significantly improve long-term child well-being.
Our Focus
NCFI advocates for permanency models that prioritize family integrity, relational permanence, and long-term stability over transactional system outcomes.
Our work supports:
- Expanded kinship care resources
- Equitable support for kinship caregivers
- Prevention-centered services
- Safe reunification
- Trauma-informed permanency planning
- Family finding initiatives
- Policies that strengthen lifelong family connections
Through education, policy engagement, and Collective Impact partnerships, we encourage systems that recognize relationships as one of the strongest protective factors in a child's life.
Become a Coalition Member
Building lifelong family connections requires collaboration among child welfare agencies, courts, educators, healthcare providers, community organizations, researchers, and families themselves.
Coalition members work together to strengthen permanency policies, improve kinship supports, and help ensure every child grows up connected to caring adults who remain present throughout their lives.