The beginning of foster care is a difficult and emotional time for children or youth and their families. They may be too stressed or afraid to share a complete list of connections during an initial meeting. By continuing to search for kin throughout a child or youth's time in care and asking each connection about others, you can uncover more supportive relationships and help them leave care with more connections than they entered with.

How to do this

Make asking about other kin a standard practice. Require team members to ask kin about other kin during initial and ongoing contacts. Add a question like, "Are there other connections that we should know about?" to form letters or standard messages. Ask supportive adults who attend planning meetings if there are others who should be involved.

Build efforts to identify kin into regular meetings and milestones. Review the list of known connections at each planning meeting and ask all participants if they can think of anyone who's missing. Create specific points for repeating activities to identify kin, like court hearings or regular calendar intervals. Specify exactly who is responsible for leading this work at each milestone.

Designate a place to store all information about kin. Pick somewhere in your child welfare information system to keep names, contact information, and any other relevant details.

This strategy in action

Michigan has established a policy requiring that "relative search must begin prior to the child's removal from the home and continues until legal permanency for the child has been achieved or case closure." They explicitly ask identified kin to share the names of more kin on their relative notification form.

Washington State asks about supportive connections at every Family Team Decision Meeting and asks everyone: even if you can't take placement, is there anyone else within your family or that the child knows who we should be talking to?

California asks all supportive adults at every Child and Family Team meeting if they know of any other kin who should be included.

Rhode Island connects with foster youth in group homes over Zoom meetings specifically to ask about supportive connections they may not have previously identified.

Virginia asks about supportive adults annually and at every placement change, ensuring regular opportunities to discover new connections.

Resources