The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition advocates for adoptive, foster and kinship families.

When a child’s biological parents are unable to provide a safe and nurturing home, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, and non-relatives are regularly called upon to parent the child. These kinship caregivers look for legal advice and representation with regard to their legal relationship with the child, so they can properly provide for the child and ensure their well-being.

Currently, the overwhelming majority of kinship caregivers are granted custody of the child by the court. Very few children are provided with the additional protection of having a legal guardianship relationship with their kinship caregivers.

Awarding kinship caregivers guardianship (rather than custody) would result in the following additional benefits for the child:

  1. Guardianship parents are allowed to consent to medical treatment. Custodians do not have this legal authority (though sometimes are given the authority on a case-by-case basis).
  2. Private health insurance must cover children in guardianship relationships.  Some health insurance companies may allow custody families insurance, but they are not obligated to do so.
  3. In certain circumstances, legal guardians can control a child’s financial interests; custodians cannot.
  4. Guardianship parents (not custodians) can access needed support services through a network of Regional Permanency Resource Centers.

Further details regarding these benefits are described by following the links provided:

  1.  https://ocfs.ny.gov/kinship/kingap.asp 

  2. The National Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation’s handout What Social Service Professionals Need to Know to Support Guardianship Families: https://qic-ag.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SFC-Factsheet-Guardianship-final.pdf

  3. The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition’s web site regarding Statewide Regional Permanency Resource Centers (Including AGAPE, the Coalitions’ Program): https://affcny.org/adoption-in-new-york/post-adoption-services/regional-permanency-resource-centers/

The New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) funds Regional Permanency Resource Centers in every New York county to offer support services to guardianship and adoptive families to ensure their success and well-being. These services are provided to families at no cost to the parents. These programs, however, cannot serve families with custody relationships to the children in their care. The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York operates Regional Permanency Resource Centers in nineteen counties in Central New York, the Hudson Valley, and on Long Island. Our post-adoption/guardianship program is known as the Adoption and Guardianship Assistance Program for Everyone (AGAPE)

Children and caregivers in kinship relationships have special circumstances and stressors that can lead the child and parent into hardships (emotional, social, educational, and financial) that place the family at risk for potential harm or disruption. AGAPE supports the well-being of guardianship families by individualizing services to meet the needs of each unique family. Services typically include case management, therapeutic parenting education (one-on-one and group trainings), educational advocacy, navigation of mental health services, mentoring, parent and youth support groups, and connecting families to community resources. These services improve the outcomes for children and families and prevent the need for foster care, out-of-home placement, hospitalizations or residential treatment. By issuing guardianship to kinship families, parents and children can receive the support they need through AGAPE to become healthy and strong.

The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition has been supporting adoptive, foster, and kinship families since 1975. We look forward to working with attorneys around the state to ensure that kinship families have the support they need to thrive.

The Coalition welcomes the opportunity to meet with individual attorneys and firms to explore how we can best meet the needs of children in kinship care.  We are  also developing a free online legal referral directory for New York families and we invite those family law practices who wish to be listed to fill out a simple form to be added to the list.

Please contact AFFCNY’s Executive Director, Pat O’Brien, via email at pat@affcny.org to discuss setting up a meeting or call our 24/7 helpline 888-354-1342.