Kinship Care: What the Research Tells Us September 08, 2026

During this webinar, we will walk through what the research actually shows about placing children with kin rather than with caregivers who do not already share their family, culture, and community connections. That evidence is a major reason there has been a federal preference for placing children with relatives for almost thirty years, why states have built on that preference in their own laws, and why the movement toward kin-first child welfare agencies continues to gain momentum. But the research varies in quality — some of it is well-established, some of it is still debated, and some areas remain genuinely limited. We will walk through all three, honestly, so you leave with an accurate picture of what we know and do not yet know.