Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program:

While these regulations will provide guidance to local departments seeking to allow a relative to take custody of a child in foster care, because Virginia lags behind other states in its utilization of relatives as foster parents, and because a relative must first be the child's foster parent before taking custody of the child to receive the financial support, the impact of the Kinship Guardian Assistance Program is likely to remain insignificant. 

Virginia lags in utilizing relatives as foster care placements partly due to practices of kinship diversion—placing children with relatives outside the foster care system—and due to failing to approve relatives as foster care placements.

While this proposed regulation comports with the statutory requirements and is in line with federal and state laws and policies providing for relative guardianship as an allowable--and important--permanency goal for a child in foster care, because many local departments do not prioritize such guardianship as a permanency option, thus choosing not to take advantage of provisions to immediately place children with relatives as foster placements prior to final approval. Virginia’s extensive “barrier crimes” list also limits placement with relatives, though not as much as local practices. 

The notification of an appeals process for denial of kinship guardianship is somewhat meaningless without an additional notification of a meaningful appeals process for denial of application to become the foster home for the child at the time the child is removed from her original family home--which Virginia does not have

Virginia and its children will only realize the advantages of this regulation outlining the process for the Kinship Guardian Assistance Program when more children are placed with relatives in foster care.