Kin Caregiver Check-in Calls: A Strategy to Support Placement Stability

Agencies across several states are prioritizing placing children in out-of-home care with kin rather than strangers. Many states are prioritizing placing children with kin because they think it can promote a sense of stability and belonging, stronger family connections, and preservation of cultural identity. But placement is only the first step. When children are placed with kin caregivers, it is important to support the needs of the caregivers in addition to the needs of children.

Kin caregivers, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other relatives, often step into caregiver roles with little notice. They may also receive less support compared to traditional foster parents. They must manage a significant personal life disruption while also navigating the bureaucracy of complex child welfare systems.

This publication outlines how implementing brief, structured kin caregiver check-in calls is one promising, low-lift strategy to proactively support kinship placements.

Case managers can use this guide and implementation tools — drawn from the Government Performance Lab’s work with leaders in Michigan and Los Angeles County — to easily incorporate this type of call into their case management processes.

We encourage you to integrate these check-in calls into your existing case management practices to proactively support kin caregivers and promote placement stability.

The publication provides a process map and step-by-step guide for implementing kin caregiver check-in calls.

Read the Publication

To accompany this guide, the GPL developed two tools that case managers can use as starting points to implement kin caregiver check-in calls:

Tool 1: A sample phone call script for conducting the check-in call

(PDF Document)

Download Phone Call Script

Tool 2: A sample tracking spreadsheet for documenting and following up on calls

(Excel Spreadsheet)

Download Tracking Spreadsheet