The Network Connection

VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 5 | FEBRUARY 2024

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This month, we’re honoring Black History Month by calling attention to several resources related to supporting Black kinship/grandfamilies. We have four video resources produced with the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging, Inc., a Network partner, and a monthly two-pager that briefly provides background information and recommendations to help you work with Black kinship/grandfamilies. Access all five of these resources here. Additionally, Generations United has a toolkit and associated tip sheet for professionals serving Black grandfamilies entitled African American Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Culture.

In this newsletter, we’re sharing several new resources from the Network and highlighting other information and opportunities from around the field. Please read on for more information.

Register for Our Upcoming Webinars!

Exemplary Programs in Action

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET

One of the Network’s goals is to designate and elevate exemplary kinship policies, practices, and programs implemented by state, tribal, and territorial government agencies and nonprofit organizations. We are doing this work so kinship service providers can learn from each other and support more kinship families around the country. Meet some of the first programs that have been deemed exemplary by the Network. Explore the characteristics that make these programs so successful and be inspired to start a similar program or “up your game” in serving kinship families in your own community.

Kin-Specific Licensing:

Progress So Far

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET

Since the U.S. Administration for Children and Families issued a final rule in September 2023 giving title IV-E child welfare agencies the option to use kin-specific foster care licensing or approval standards, a number of agencies have made significant progress in implementing this option. Join us for a brief overview of the final rule, the Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval Standards, and updates since their initial publication. Learn from the experiences of six title IV-E agencies that are piloting the Standards and explore what to consider as you implement them in your state or tribe. Our presenter is Network Subject Matter Expert Marina Nitze.

Don't Miss the Deadline for the

Bridging Systems for Kinship Families

Tribal Program Application

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), a Network partner, is leading an initiative to provide one tribe or tribal organization with the opportunity to work with the nation’s leading experts on relative caregiver/kinship families, all free of charge. NICWA will provide in-depth support on goals that the tribe/tribal organization, tribal leaders, and community self-identify to help with effective collaboration internally across tribal departments and/or externally with state or county government systems and/or nonprofit service providers to better serve all kinship/relative caregiving families, whether child welfare involved or not. Collaborating effectively will help address service barriers and leverage resources to maximize support for these families. Apply by 11:59 p.m. PT on Monday, March 18.

You may have noticed that we have been sharing posts on LinkedIn about programs that earned our Exemplary Program designation. We'd love your help in increasing the visibility of the work of these great programs, and you can do that by reacting to, commenting on, or resharing our post on GRANDfamilies Kinship Care at Children's Service Society of Utah, our post on High Country Caregivers, and our post on the Kinship Care Project at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. Additionally, be sure to look for more Exemplary Program posts in the next couple of weeks! 

The Network is responding free of charge to individual technical assistance (TA) requests from professionals who work in systems and organizations that serve kinship/grandfamilies. To request assistance on the array of issues impacting kinship/grandfamilies, please complete our request assistance form.

Network Director Ana Beltran and USAging Program Manager Leland Kiang have been invited to present at two sessions of the 2024 National Title VI Training & Technical Assistance Conference taking place from March 18 through March 21 in Arlington, Virginia. Title VI refers to the title of the Older Americans Act that funds and provides nutrition and other supportive services for American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian older adults, including relative caregivers aged 55 and over raising children.

42nd Annual Protecting Our Children Conference

Seattle, WA and Virtual

National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA)

April 7 – 10, 2024

This year’s conference theme is Together We Stand: Preserving the Spirit of ICWA. Register before March 1 to take advantage of the early-bird discount! Among many important and relevant sessions and opportunities, Network Director Ana Beltran, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Director Cheryl Miller, and NICWA Director of Government Affairs & Advocacy David Simmons will be presenting a session called “Supporting Relative Caregivers through Improved Foster Care Licensing” on Tuesday, April 9, and NICWA Founder & Senior Advisor Terry Cross and NICWA Government Affairs and Community Development Fellow Mariah Meyerholz will be presenting a session called “Development and Implementation of Tribal Foster Care and Relative/Kinship Care Standards,” also taking place on April 9.

Immigrants’ Eligibility for U.S. Public Benefits: A Primer

Migration Policy Institute

During last month’s Network webinar, Unaccompanied Immigrant Children in Kinship Families, panelists received several questions about immigrant kinship/grandfamilies and their access to public benefits. This report answers those questions by providing a current overview of immigrants’ eligibility for programs and services.

Publications by our Partners

Kathy Kinsner, who serves on our management committee as a representative of our partner ZERO TO THREE, published Grand Connections: A Workshop Series to Support Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren Under 5 in GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy. This article describes the development of the Grand Connections workshop series and shares the encouraging results of a study evaluating its impact. ZERO TO THREE developed and refined Grand Connections over the course of several years, and there is much to learn from both their process and their evaluation.

Our partner Child Trends published a blog post by Network Subject Matter Expert Dr. Tyreasa Washington and her colleague Mavis Sanders, Positive Self-Care Practices Can Reduce Black Kinship Caregivers’ Stress. The piece highlights the importance of addressing caregiver stress and promoting caregiver self-care. The post links to several important research articles, a piece by the Network, and the work of Network Subject Matter Expert Dr. Joseph Crumbley.

Child Trends also has a new publication called Supporting Diverse Family Structures Through Social Safety Net Programs. Written by Lisa Kim, Deja Logan, and Mindy E. Scott, this publication shares data on family structures in the U.S. and social safety net programs, as well as recommendations to increase equity in these programs.

The State Grants for the Implementation, Enhancement, and Expansion of Medicaid and CHIP School-Based Services funding opportunity comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. State Medicaid Agencies can apply, and the program expects to award 20 grants, each for up to $2.5 million. Applications are due by Monday, March 25, 2024.

The Standing Announcement for Tribal Title IV-E Plan Development Grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is designed to provide one-time grants to tribes, tribal organizations, or tribal consortia that are seeking to develop and implement a title IV-E foster care, adoption assistance, and optional guardianship assistance program. The Department expects to award five grants, each for $150,000 to $300,000. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, April 19, 2024.

The Power of Your Voice: Meet Gail

CO4Kids Community Blog

This blog post puts a spotlight on Gail Engel, who serves as a Network subject matter expert and a member of our management committee. As Gail says, “I would have never seen myself here, not in a million years. I used to be very shy and bashful, believing I had no voice. But today, I’m different. I show up, and that’s important. I may not be able to do everything, but doing something is far better than doing nothing. Now, I’m anxious to discover what the next 20 years will be like for families.” Read the article to learn even more about Gail.

Final Rule Announced to Update Regulations for Older Americans Act Programs

ACL released a final rule to update regulations regarding the implementation of its Older Americans Act (OAA) programs. Programs include the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Native American Caregiver Support Program, which fund important supportive services, such as counseling and respite, for grandparents and other relatives aged 55 and over raising children. To learn more about both of these programs, read the Network/USAging resource Kinship/Grandfamilies: The Role of Area Agencies on Aging and Title VI Native American Aging Programs.

Bureau of Indian Education Launches Behavioral Health Call Line for Students and Staff

The Bureau of Indian Education is increasing behavioral health and wellness support by launching a 24/7 support phone line - 1-844-ASK-BHWP (1-844-275-2497) - for students and staff at schools and programs funded by the Bureau. The phone line is staffed by trained professionals who offer crisis support and scheduled counseling sessions.

Information and Resources Related to Medicaid Unwinding

Medicaid and CHIP Renewal and Transition Resources for Partners - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working with other federal agencies to provide key resources in one centralized location so partners can better assist people who are trying to renew their health coverage with Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or find other coverage options that may be a better fit for them.

States Obtain Special Waivers to Help Unwinding Efforts - This policy watch from KFF explains common waivers that states have obtained to help them comply with federal regulations and avoid disenrollments for procedural reasons.

Unwinding of Medicaid Continuous Enrollment: Key Themes from the Field - This issue brief from KFF contains information based on interviews with Medicaid officials and representatives from Medicaid managed care plans, primary care associations, legal aid, and other stakeholder organizations in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

Preparing Kinship/Grandfamilies to Respond to Medicaid/CHIP Changes - Our resource from last year contains brief background information and tips for how you can help families prepare for and deal with this process, as well as links to further resources.

Annual Update of the HHS 2024 Poverty Guidelines

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has updated the federal poverty guidelines to account for last calendar year’s increase in prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The poverty guidelines are used as an eligibility criterion by many programs.

City of Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) Announces $274,000 for Kinship Caregiver Support Services

The City of Seattle is working to better support kinship families by leveraging funding available through child welfare (kinship navigator) and aging (National Family Caregiver Support Program).

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network is the first-ever national technical assistance center for those who serve grandfamilies and kinship families. It was created to help guide lasting, systemic reforms. The Network is a new way to collaborate, to work across jurisdictional and systemic boundaries, to eliminate silos, and to help one another and be helped in return. Thank you for being part of it.

We'd love to hear from you! Please send any feedback on this newsletter to mweiss@gu.org.



The Network is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $9,950,000 with 95 percentage funded by ACL/HHS and $523,684 and 5 percentage funded by non-government sources. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.