States have undertaken a variety of strategies to implement the new Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (PL 110-351). Here you will find selected examples of state and tribal approaches related to implementing the new law, or you can search by state.

Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program

• Michigan's Guardianship Assistance Program
  The Michigan Department of Human Services is the fourth state in the nation to receive an approved state plan amendment for the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (Kin-GAP). Michigan had enacted state legislation authorizing guardianship for ch...
• Vermont: Human Services (Enacted Legislation)
  Proposes to modify the permanent guardianship law for children to comply with new federal provisions and enable guardians to access federal funds for guardianships.
• Alabama: Kinship / Guardianship Subsidy (Enacted Legislation)
  Establishes a kinship guardianship subsidy program. Sets procedures for establishing kinship guardianships and legal authority of kinship guardians.
• Rhode Island's Guardianship Assistance Program
  Rhode Island's state plan amendment for guardianship approved Following the passage of the Fostering Connections Act, Rhode Island was the first state to receive an approved state plan amendment for the federal guardianship assistance program (GAP...
• Tennessee's Guardianship Assistance Program
  In 2009, the Tennessee Department of Children's Services received approval from the federal government for its state plan amendment for the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP). Tennessee had been conducting a Title IV-E waiver demonstr...
• Pennsylvania's Guardianship Assistance Program
  Pennsylvania’s state plan amendment for guardianship approved In 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Children, Youth and Families received approval from the federal government for its state plan amendment for ...
• Arkansas: Guardianship Subsidy (Enacted Legislation)
  Amends Arkansas' relative guardianship subsidy program to add those children who are eligible for Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments and who have been in the care of a relative for at least six months to the list of eligible children under the state's program.
• California: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the department to amend its foster care state plan to extend care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Requires the court to ensure that the child's transitional case plan is reviewed periodically and includes a plan for the child to meet one or more criteria that would allow the child to remain a nonminor dependent, and to ensure that the child has been informed of his or her right to seek the termination of dependency jurisdiction. Extends the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) to include children under 21 years of age who turned 16 years of age before the adoption assistance agreement became effective.
• Illinois: Kinship Navigator Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Creates the Kinship Navigator Act. Defines "kinship care" as the full time care and of children by relatives, members of their tribes or clans, grandparents, godparents, stepparents, or any adult who has physical custody and a kinship bond. Establishes a program, to be administered through a grant to a not-for-profit organization, to serve as liaison among State agencies and groups, to promote kinship care and provide diversity services.
• Michigan: Guardianship Assistance Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Creates the Guardianship Assistance Act to provide a negotiated, binding agreement for financial support for children who meet the qualifications for guardianship assistance. Sets eligibility of child and guardian. Specifies that only a relative who is a licensed foster parent caring for a child who is eligible to receive Title IV-E funded foster care payments for 6 consecutive months is eligible for federal funding under Title IV-E for guardianship assistance. States that a child not eligible for Title IV-E funding who is placed with a relative is eligible for state-funded guardianship-assistance.
• Michigan: Guardianship Assistance Program (Enacted Legislation)
  Urges Congress to take certain actions with regard to the federal guardianship assistance program by revising the funding to allow the six-month residency requirement to begin to run prior to licensing of the home, provided that both the home is licensed and the residency requirement is met before federal funding begins.
• New York: Education, Labor, and Family Assistance Budget (Enacted Legislation)
  Makes appropriations for the support of government - Education, Labor and Family Assistance Budget, including appropriations for developing and implementation of a new subsidized kinship guardianship program consistent with the federal fostering connections to success and increasing adoptions act of 2008.
• Texas: Parent Child Relationship (Enacted Legislation)
  Extends adoption assistance to a child's adoptive parents after age 18 and until age 21. Establishes that the department shall include training in trauma-informed programs and services in any training the department provides to foster parents, adoptive parents, kinship caregivers, and department caseworkers. The department shall pay for the training provided under this section with gifts, donations, and grants and any federal money available through the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. Extends foster care payments after a youth is age 18 until age 22. Develops the permanency care assistance program which will provide for the reimbursement of the nonrecurring expenses a kinship provider incurs in obtaining permanent managing conservatorship of a foster child; the program must conform to the requirements for federal assistance as required by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.
• Washington: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Expands foster care up to age 21, expands the current relative guardianship program, and expands their current child welfare services. Clarifies the authority of the Department of Social and Health Services to provide continuing foster care placement services with youth ages 18-21 enrolled in post-secondary programs. Authorizes qualified relatives to receive a guardianship subsidy on behalf of a dependent child placed in the home under a guardianship order. Establishes the authority of the DSHS, beginning October 1, 2010, to provide foster care placement services for youth aging out of foster care who are engaged in qualified activities consistent with federal law.

Relative Identification And Notice

• Arizona: Relatives; Disclosure; Dependent Children (Enacted Legislation)
  Makes additions to the required contents of a temporary custody notice and notice related to a dependency petition (Notice), and to the requirements of the court at preliminary protective hearings and dependency adjudication hearings.
• Arkansas: Grandparents Access to Grandchildren (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the Department of Human Services to identify and provide notice to all adult grandparents and other adult relatives within 30 days of a juvenile transferred to the custody of the department. Requires court reports to include information and recommendations concerning placement and visitation with a grandparent or other adult relative.
• California: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the department to amend its foster care state plan to extend care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Requires the court to ensure that the child's transitional case plan is reviewed periodically and includes a plan for the child to meet one or more criteria that would allow the child to remain a nonminor dependent, and to ensure that the child has been informed of his or her right to seek the termination of dependency jurisdiction. Extends the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) to include children under 21 years of age who turned 16 years of age before the adoption assistance agreement became effective.
• California: Dependent Children & Relative Caregivers (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires a social worker, when a child is removed from the home, to immediately begin conducting an investigation in order to identify and locate all grandparents, adult siblings, and other adult relative of the child, in order to provide those persons with specified information, including that the child has been removed from the custody of his or her parents or guardians and an explanation of various options to participate in placement of the child.
• Colorado: Kinship Placement and Guardianship (Enacted Legislation)
  Amends portions of the Colorado Children's Code to comply with the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 concerning kinship placements and due diligence. Allows the court to order the Department of Human Services to exercise due diligence in contacting all grandparents and other adult relatives 30 days following the removal of the child and to inform them about placement possibilities for the child. Establishes a kinship guardianship assistance program in the department of human services.
• Connecticut: Department of Children and Families (Enacted Legislation)
  Establishes that at the temporary custody hearing regarding the placement of a child, the court shall identify any person or persons related to the child or youth by blood or marriage who might serve as licensed foster parents, certified relative caregivers or temporary custodians and order the Commissioner of Children and Families to investigate and determine, not later than thirty days after the preliminary hearing, the appropriateness of placement of the child or youth with such relative or relatives.
• Georgia: Parental Termination Orders (Enacted Legislation)
  Determines that within 30 days after the removal of a child from the custody of the parent or parents of the child, the department shall exercise due diligence to identify a parent or relative of the child or other persons who have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the child.
• Iowa: Department of Human Services (Enacted Legislation)
  Relates to administrative and planning requirements involving children for whom the Department of Human Services has responsibility under state or federal law. Revises transition planning for older children in foster care who are age 16 or older and approaching adulthood to include health care coverage planning, opportunities to have a mentor, and education and housing assistance. Requires documentation of the educational stability of the child while in foster care. Mandates the department to send a notice to all adult relatives of the child in custody explaining their options to provide care for the child.
• Minnesota: Human Services (Enacted Legislation)
  Companion to HB 1709. Establishes that the responsible social services agency shall make diligent efforts to identify and locate both parents of any child who is the subject of child welfare proceedings, as well as conduct a relative search to identify and provide notice to adult relatives. Diligent efforts include asking the custodial or known parent to identify any nonresident parent of the child and provide information that can be used to verify the nonresident parent's identity. Efforts also must be made to place siblings removed from their home in the same home for foster care, adoption, or transfer permanent legal and physical custody to a relative.
• Missouri: Foster Care (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the state to make diligent efforts to contact and locate the grandparents of a child for emergency placement, except when the children's division determines this to not be in the best interest of the child. Defines "diligent efforts" to include a good faith attempt documented in writing by the children's division, which exercises reasonable efforts and care to utilize all available services and resources related to meeting the ongoing health and safety needs of the child, to locate a grandparent or grandparents of the child. Creates a "Foster Care Education Bill of Rights" which designates an educational liaision from each school district to each child in foster care. Establishes that each child placing agency shall promote the educational stability for foster care children when making placement decision by considering their current school attendance area.�
• North Dakota: Foster Care Sibling Placement (Enacted Legislation)
  Relates to placement of siblings in foster care and a guardian's duty to exercise due diligence to identify and provide notice to all potential relative caregivers.
• Oklahoma: Kinship Notification and Sibling Placement (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the court, at the emergency custody hearing of the child, to mandate the parent, legal guardian, or custodian to list all parents and relatives as potential placements for the child. Requires the Department to exercise due diligence to identify all relatives of the child and notify them that the child has been removed from their parent's custody and alert them to the requirements to becoming a potential foster care provider for the child. Requires the Department to make reasonable efforts to place any siblings in state custody together.

Licensing For Relatives

• California: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the department to amend its foster care state plan to extend care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Requires the court to ensure that the child's transitional case plan is reviewed periodically and includes a plan for the child to meet one or more criteria that would allow the child to remain a nonminor dependent, and to ensure that the child has been informed of his or her right to seek the termination of dependency jurisdiction. Extends the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) to include children under 21 years of age who turned 16 years of age before the adoption assistance agreement became effective.

Keeping Siblings Together

• Georgia: Sibling Connection (Enacted Legislation)
  Determines that siblings removed from their home shall be placed in the same foster care, kinship, guardianship, or adoptive placement, unless the Division of Family and Children Services documents that such a joint placement would be contrary to the safety or well-being of any of the siblings. Includes provisions ensuring the educational stability of the child while in foster care, including an assurance that the state agency has coordinated with appropriate local educational agencies to ensure that the child remains in the school in which the child is enrolled at the time of placement. Establishes that the Division of Family and Children Services of the Department of Human Services provide the child with assistance and support in developing a transition plan that is personalized at the direction of the child; includes specific options on housing, health insurance, education, local opportunities for mentors and continuing support services, and work force supports and employment services; and is as detailed as the child may elect in the 90 day period immediately prior to the date on which the child will attain 18 years of age.
• Arizona: Sibling Connection (Enacted Legislation)
  Relates to sibling connection
• California: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the department to amend its foster care state plan to extend care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Requires the court to ensure that the child's transitional case plan is reviewed periodically and includes a plan for the child to meet one or more criteria that would allow the child to remain a nonminor dependent, and to ensure that the child has been informed of his or her right to seek the termination of dependency jurisdiction. Extends the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) to include children under 21 years of age who turned 16 years of age before the adoption assistance agreement became effective.
• North Dakota: Foster Care Sibling Placement (Enacted Legislation)
  Relates to placement of siblings in foster care and a guardian's duty to exercise due diligence to identify and provide notice to all potential relative caregivers.
• Oklahoma: Kinship Notification and Sibling Placement (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the court, at the emergency custody hearing of the child, to mandate the parent, legal guardian, or custodian to list all parents and relatives as potential placements for the child. Requires the Department to exercise due diligence to identify all relatives of the child and notify them that the child has been removed from their parent's custody and alert them to the requirements to becoming a potential foster care provider for the child. Requires the Department to make reasonable efforts to place any siblings in state custody together.
• Washington: Post-Adoption Contact (Enacted Legislation)
  Directs the court reviewing and approving an adoption agreement to encourage consideration of providing postadoption contact between siblings who will be separated by the adoption. Requires the court to inquire of attorneys and GALs representing children in adoption and other custody matters about the potential benefit of continuing contact between siblings and the potential detriment of severing contact. Requires the pre-adoption home study report to verify that discussions with adoptive parents included the relevance of sibling relationships.

Family Connection Grants

• CA: Aspiranet Inc.Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Aspiranet Inc.'s grant summary here.  ...
• MN: Minnesota Kinship Caregivers Association Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Minnesota Kinship Caregivers Association's summary here....
• OH: Public Children Services Association of Ohio Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find the Public Children Services Association of Ohio grant summary here....
• NJ: The Children's Home Society of New Jersey Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find The Children’s Home Society of New Jersey summary here....
• CA: YMCA of San Diego County, YMCA Youth & Family Services Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find YMCA of San Diego County, YMCA Youth & Family Services summary here....
• WI: Children's Service Society of Wisconsin Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find the Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin's summary here....
• NJ: International Social Service-USA Branch Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find the International Social Service-USA Branch's summary here....
• FL: Kids Central Inc. Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Kids Central Inc.'s summary here....
• FL: Partnership for Strong Families Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find the Partnership for Strong Families summary here....
• OH: Amethyst, Inc. Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Amethyst, Inc.'s summary here....
• OR: OnTrack Inc. Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find OnTrack Inc.'s summary here....
• TN: Renewal House, Inc. Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find the Renewal House, Inc.'s summary here....
• MN: The Wayside House Inc. Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find The Wayside House Inc.'s summary here....
• WI: Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Wisconsin Department of Children and Families summary here....
• WA: Catholic Charities Diocese of Yakima's Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Catholic Charities Diocese of Yakima's summary here....
• CA: Lilliput Children's Services Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Lilliput Children’s Services summary here....
• ME: Maine DHHS, Office of Child and Family Services Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Maine DHHS, Office of Child and Family Services summary here....
• MD: Maryland Department of Human Resources Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Maryland Department of Human Resources' summary here....
• OK: Oklahoma Department of Human Services Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Oklahoma Department of Human Service's summary here....
• RI: Rhode Island Foster Parents Association's Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Rhode Island Foster Parents Association's summary here....
• SC: South Carolina Department of Social Service Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find South Carolina Department of Social Service's summary here....
• HI: State of Hawaii Department of Human Services Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find the State of Hawaii Department of Human Service's summary here....
• CA: Edgewood Center for Children and Families Family Connection Grant Summary
  On September 30th, 2009, the Children's Bureau awarded 24 discretionary grants.  Find Edgewood Center for Children and Families summary here....
• Listing of Family Connection Grants
  Family Connection Discretionary Grants Up to $1,000,000 per year for up to 3 years. YMCA of San Diego County, San Diego, CA Four Oaks Family and Children's Services, Cedar Rapids, IA Amethyst, Inc., Columbus, OH State of Hawaii Department of Hu...

Extension Of Independent Living And ETVs

• Alaska: Education of Children in Foster Care, Independent Living Skills Training (Enacted Legislation)
  Determines that if continued custody is in the best interests of the person and the person consents to it, the court may grant two-year extensions of commitment that do not extend beyond the person's 21st birthday. Allows for an additional period of state custody past 19 years of age if the person is in need of out-of-home care to avoid personal harm or homelessness and to enhance the person's ability to continue their education or otherwise improve their successful transition to independent living.
• California: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Requires the department to amend its foster care state plan to extend care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Requires the court to ensure that the child's transitional case plan is reviewed periodically and includes a plan for the child to meet one or more criteria that would allow the child to remain a nonminor dependent, and to ensure that the child has been informed of his or her right to seek the termination of dependency jurisdiction. Extends the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) to include children under 21 years of age who turned 16 years of age before the adoption assistance agreement became effective.
• Washington: Fostering Connections to Success Act (Enacted Legislation)
  Expands foster care up to age 21, expands the current relative guardianship program, and expands their current child welfare services. Clarifies the authority of the Department of Social and Health Services to provide continuing foster care placement services with youth ages 18-21 enrolled in post-secondary programs. Authorizes qualified relatives to receive a guardianship subsidy on behalf of a dependent child placed in the home under a guardianship order. Establishes the authority of the DSHS, beginning October 1, 2010, to provide foster care placement services for youth aging out of foster care who are engaged in qualified activities consistent with federal law.