Policy & Practice | Summer 2024

core messages were the same. The first thing for kinship caregivers was something we can all do, which is to be of service to others—help where we can—maybe offer to watch the kids once in a while and give temporary respite, or even make a meal. The second message was the need for mileage reimbursement for kinship families that had an active case in the child welfare system with temporary custody. Mileage reim bursement was needed for those caregivers as they made their required court- or cabinet-required appointments such as parental visits or court or therapy appointments for the child. I had caregivers sharing with me that they traveled hundreds of miles a month because the county where their case was open would be hours away from their residence. The system required travel but didn’t

needed to be more time and education to under stand the new demands upon them around the trauma of the child and how their lives were about to change. The Importance of Data and Research Previously, in 2018, Kentucky passed House Bill 1 (HB-1), 8 which required the Kentucky child welfare agency to provide an annual report on children’s placement types. This was huge because advocates didn’t have detailed numbers about kinship caregivers that were needed for planning. In fact, years before, when I began talking with legisla tors about additional financial support for kinship families, the problem was that there wasn’t enough data to

provide support to make it happen. The third message was the need for a policy change in how relative foster care was being offered. This was about the situation with Margie. I had several meetings with many legislators, which resulted in Kentucky Senate Bill 151 (SB-151). 10 The bill proposed the flexibility (up to 120 days) for a caregiver to make a final placement decision and more. Over time, SB-151 was unanimously approved in both committee hearings; it had unanimous approval on both the Senate and House floor and was signed by the governor on April 5, 2024. The fourth message in my op-ed was the need for a Guardian Assistance Program (GAP) 11 where additional financial assistance followed children in relative foster care after per manency. GAP is something that we—Kentucky Youth Advocates and myself—had been discussing for several years. I’m so grateful to our DCBS and the legislature for helping to make this happen. Kentucky now calls

more to encourage caregivers to select relative foster care—but I just didn’t have enough data to be more succinct about the needs and costs for solutions. From my perspective, I totally agree with the blank check comment, but I felt stuck. It was the moment when I con sidered giving up; yet I couldn’t give up because the calls for help kept coming from kinship caregivers, and doing nothing was not an option for me. A month later after the hearing in September 2023, DCBS released their new report as required by HB-1. It showed that more than half the children in the system in Kentucky are in temporary custody rather than relative foster care. 9 So I’m at the point now that not only do I have the personal knowledge from talking with families and my experiences, but I also have some definitive data. In December of 2023, I wrote a published opinion editorial (op-ed) entitled, “Five Things We Can Do for Kinship Families.” Different news papers put a spin on the title, but the

estimate the costs. This new report with key data points would provide insights about the issue in a way that storytelling alone could not. An impor tant piece to storytelling’s impact is through research and data. The Department of Community Based Services (DCBS) was meeting with me and listening, and we were doing some great things together. For me, I was grateful that the doors were opening and maybe, just maybe, I thought we could see some action. In August of 2023, I spoke at a legisla tive committee meeting to share the high-level needs of kinship families and how most stem around financial needs. At one point, the Committee Chair asked why caregivers were not taking the relative foster care option. I explained the issues: (1) lack of trust in the system; (2) the selection process of custody type was confusing; and (3) issues regarding communication of available services. Later, I’m told by a legislator that they can’t write a blank check, and that we all need to do

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