Pathways to Success: K-12 Education Supports for Kinship and Grandfamiles

Introduction

“Imagine a 9-year-old girl living with her grandmother after her parents died in a car crash. The grandmother, now her primary caregiver, loves her deeply but faces a significant challenge: enrolling her in school. Without formal legal custody, they find themselves in a “gray area,” navigating unique and systemic hurdles that limit their access to essential educational services, resources, and opportunities. The grandmother is struggling to secure the necessary documents and permissions, delaying the child’s enrollment and disrupting her education. Despite the grandmother’s best efforts, these barriers make it nearly impossible to ensure a smooth transition into school. ”

About 2.5 million children across the United States are being raised in grandfamilies, families in which grandparents, other adult relatives, or close family friends are raising children with no parents in the home. These are also known as kinship families. 

Our report Pathways to Success: K-12 Education Support for Kinship and Grandfamilies uncovered three key themes about the education experiences of the nearly 2.5 million children being raised in grandfamilies and kinship care:  

  • Grandfamily and other kin caregivers face overwhelming barriers to supporting the education of children in their care.  

  • Despite this, their strength, resilience, determination and the power of family connection makes their home the best place for children who can’t remain with their parents. Children in grandfamilies and kinship care have better academic outcomes than children raised in foster care with non-kin.   

  • And when grandfamilies get access to critical supports, the children’s academic outcomes can soar.    

When children cannot remain in the care of their parents, research consistently shows that they do best in kinship/grandfamilies. Yet, they often face serious challenges that can affect their educational success and are not easily overcome without appropriate, equitable services and support. Kinship/grandfamily challenges that impact education include: 

  • Meeting children’s basic needs 

  • Enrolling children in school and managing legal barriers related to educational decision-making 

  • Obtaining support for learning disabilities and other special needs 

  • Managing the effects of trauma 

  • Overcoming communication and education planning barriers with schools 

Schools can serve as hubs of support for kinship/grandfamilies by providing wraparound services to connect them to needed benefits and supports. However, schools often lack staff trained on the unique strengths and needs of kinship/grandfamilies and/or do not have the resources, such as social workers and counselors, to provide the additional support necessary for the children’s educational success. 

Kinship/Grandfamilies Story

Watch Ms. Shari Larche’s story about raising her four grandsons.
Thank you to the Humana Foundation for producing and sharing this video.

Key Facts & Findings

  • About 2.5 million children are being raised by a relative or close family friend and do not have a parent living in the household.

  • About 34% (123,294 out of 368,530) of children in foster care are being raised by relatives.

  • Children raised by kin within the foster care system do better academically and are more likely to have access to supports and services than those raised by kin outside of foster care.

  • For every child being raised by kin in foster care, there are 19 children being raised by kin outside of foster care.

  • Kinship/grandfamilies often face serious challenges that can affect the children’s educational success and that are not easily overcome without appropriate, equitable services and supports. These challenges include meeting basic needs, overcoming communication barriers between schools and kinship caregivers, addressing disabilities and special education needs, managing effects of trauma, gaining legal custody of the children, and enrolling children in school.

  • Children being raised by kin outside of foster care are less likely than those raised by kin foster caregivers to receive school-based services and other supports which may help them thrive academically.

  • Children thrive in kinship/grandfamilies when they get the support they need. Children living in kinship/grandfamilies do better academically than children in foster care with non-kin. They have fewer school changes, better attendance, better school safety, more chances for involvement in school activities, lower rates of disciplinary action, lower likelihood of repeating a grade, and fewer experiences with bullying compared to children in foster care with non-kin.

Citations for the data points are available here.

Challenges

  • Basic Needs

    Research shows that children in grandfamilies and kinship care who receive services and support that ensure their basic needs are met experience better outcomes than those who don’t. Children must have what they need in order to come to school ready to learn and meet their educational milestones. However, many kinship/grandfamilies are unaware of or lack access to critical supports and benefits. Children in kinship/grandfamilies may struggle with critical basic needs, including: financial security, health and mental health, housing, transportation and nutrition. 

    Learn More

  • Legal Relationship & Enrollment

    Many grandfamily and kinship caregivers do not have a legal relationship with the children in their care making it difficult to enroll children in school, help plan for their education or manage crucial education decisions.  They need support to advocate effectively for the education rights of the children in their care, even if they are not the children’s legal guardian. Schools often lack policies, practices, or resources that are sensitive to and supportive of these needs and challenges. 

    Learn More

  • Learning Disabilities & Other Special Needs

    Compared to children in parent-headed families, children being raised by grandparents are more likely to have learning disabilities, special health care needs, and mental and behavioral health conditions. These challenges are often compounded by financial limitations, school changes and poor access to specialized supports and services. 

    Learn More

  • Trauma

    Most children in grandfamilies experience trauma before coming to live with their relatives. Trauma-inducing issues like parental substance use, incarceration, mental health issues, and instability, as well as child maltreatment, may be the reason a child lives in a kinship/grandfamily. Without appropriate supports and services, these experiences can significantly impact their ability to learn. 

    Learn More

  • Communication & Education Planning

    Kin/grandfamily caregivers often express frustration as they struggle to be included in school communications and participate in the education of the children they are raising. Grandfamily/kin caregivers may not receive notices about education planning meetings, disciplinary actions, activities and field trips, or other things taking place at school, which impedes their ability to fully support the education of the children in their care. 

    Learn More

Spotlights

Laurie Tapozada, 63, from Rhode Island, is a grandmother raising her nine-year-old grandson, whom she adopted after initially fostering him. She has navigated educational challenges for her grandson, including managing a 504 plan and exploring an Individualized Education Program (IEP), with support from the public school system. Through her involvement with The Village for Rhode Island Foster and Adoptive Families, Laurie assists other kinship families in overcoming educational and legal obstacles. She also developed the training presentation “Working Effectively with Kinship Caregivers” to enhance support in child welfare and education. For more on Laurie’s experiences and the needs of kinship families, read the report and listen to her audio snippet where she shares her journey as a kinship caregiver.

Twenty-one-year-old Keonte Jones is preparing to start college after growing up with his grandmother in Washington, whom he describes as "the backbone of the whole family." Despite early challenges with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Keonte received valuable support through a 504 plan and therapy at a private school that focused on helping students with special needs. This support transformed his educational experience, providing him with the tools he needed to succeed. Keonte is excited about his future and aims to achieve full independence, making his grandmother, parents, and supportive teachers proud. In the report, read more about Keonte’s inspiring journey as a young person raised in a kinship family, and listen to the audio snippet where he shares his experiences and aspirations. 

Dr. Michael Robert, superintendent of the Osborn School District in Phoenix, Arizona, brings 30 years of experience working with kinship families in educational settings. He deeply admires kin and grandfamily caregivers for providing children with love, stability, and support. Under his leadership, the district prioritizes holistic student care by employing educators, psychologists, and master’s-level social workers to connect families with essential services, including behavioral health care. Dr. Robert focuses on hiring professionals who embody the district's core values of equity, integrity, and creating opportunities for all children to succeed, with a special emphasis on supporting those in kinship care. Read the report and listen to an audio snippet where Dr. Robert discusses his work with kinship families and his vision for the future. 

Policy, Practice, & Research Recommendations

  • Policy Recommendations:

    • Require and provide support for schools to develop and implement plans to distribute information about available services for kinship/grandfamilies via registration & enrollment materials and processes and through regular outreach.

    • Promote broader federal and state investment to ensure financial equity for kinship/grandfamilies.   

    • Protect and improve access to key benefits that help kinship/grandfamilies meet their basic needs to ensure children have what they need to learn each day.

    • Invest in federal programs, such as Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) Grants, that can fund out-of-school time and wraparound supports and highlight ways they can be tailored to support kinship/grandfamilies. 

    • Support a research study of school-based family resource centers and community schoolsand promote and invest in strategies that increase the availability of these models.

    • Support a research study of educational outcomes for children in kinship/grandfamilies, including collecting data that can be disaggregated by race and socio-economic status.

    Practice Recommendations: 

    • Encourage kinship navigator programs to develop strong partnerships with schools including the use of permission to contact forms, which allow caregivers to give schools permission to share their contact information with the navigator so that the navigator staff will contact the family.

    • Encourage Title I schools (those with high poverty rates) to have open and widely communicated processes for making decisions about how to use Title I funding, including tailored services to help kinship/grandfamilies.  

    • Encourage schools to serve as hubs for providing wraparound services for children, including those in kinship/grandfamilies.

  • Policy Recommendations: 

    • Encourage states to implement education and health care consent laws to ensure that all kin caregivers can enroll the children they are raising in school and participate in educational decision-making.

    • Require schools to share information about available education and health care consent laws, other legal arrangements, or legal assistance that may help address barriers to enrolling the children in school. 

    • Encourage schools to develop policies that allow a kin caregiver to make day-to-day education decisions.

    • Promote the use of and investment in federal dollars for legal services and supports for kinship/grandfamilies and kinship families.

    • Issue a communication from the U.S. Department of Education that explains that the McKinney-Vento Act can apply to children who are outside of foster care being raised by kin who do not have a legal relationship to the children.

    Practice Recommendations

    • Encourage schools to make available and inform families about: 

    • Educational and health care consent forms.

    • How the McKinney-Vento Act could help kinship/grandfamilies. 

    • How kin/grandfamily caregivers can advocate for their children’s education even if they are not the legal education decision-maker.

    • The rights of children and caregivers in families in which the kin caregiver is a foster parent of the child .

  • Policy Recommendations

    • Encourage local education agencies to use Title IV, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) program funds to support trauma-informed practices and training that help children impacted by trauma, including those being raised in kinship/grandfamilies.

    Practice Recommendations

    • Improve the availability of and access to quality, trauma-informed, culturally appropriate mental health services for all kinship/grandfamilies.  

    • Provide trauma training through schools for education professionals and caregivers.

  • Policy Recommendations

    • Require local education agencies to develop and implement plans to create more efficient record sharing between schools and school districts to prevent enrollment delays. Develop school policies with required timeframes for requesting/transferring records.  

    • Encourage states to expand school stability protections (such as those in McKinney-Vento or the Every Student Succeeds Act) beyond students who are homeless or in foster care to a broader group experiencing residential instability, including those transitioning to kinship families.    

    Practice Recommendation

    • Educate kinship/grandfamilies on education protections to ensure they are upheld.

  • Educational Planning

    Policy Recommendations

    • Urge schools to provide support to kinship/grandfamilies to help them meet the IEP requirements.

    • Provide federal investments to support American Indian & Alaska Native education personnel in schools that can be of assistance to tribal children in public schools.

    • Highlight the availability of Title IV-E dollars to pay for education attorneys for children in foster care with kin. Explore the potential for using Title IV-E Prevention Services funds to support educational advocacy for children living with kin outside of foster care.

    • Issue a Dear Colleague Letter from the U.S. Department of Education to school superintendents and chief state officers making clear that kin/grandfamily caregivers should be given access to records, are allowed to participate in education planning, and can make decisions related to education needs when acting in the place of the parent.

    Practice Recommendations

    • Encourage schools to reach out to kin caregivers to invite them to share their thoughts and insights with the child’s education team. 

    • Provide training for kin caregivers on effective ways to advocate for the education of children in their care, including for special education evaluation and services.

    • Ensure all children and youth, who are developmentally able, are engaged in their education planning, including IEP, and 504 plan processes.

    Communication

    Policy Recommendation

    • Develop federal, state, and local policies that include outreach to kin/grandfamily caregivers (even if they are not the education decisionmaker for the child) to make them aware of resources that may support the child’s education and allow them to give input about the child that may assist with the child’s learning.

    Practice Recommendations

    • Use inclusive language in school policies & explicitly encourage it in school communications. Where possible, specifically name grandparents, other kin caregivers, and custodians (not just guardians).

    • Be intentional about outreach to kinship/grandfamilies when using technology/portal systems.

    • Acknowledge and affirm the presence of kinship/grandfamilies in schools.

Practioner Toolkit

COMING SOON – a new toolkit, created by Generations United’s Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network with practical strategies and tools for professionals in the field.

Learn more about Generations United’s Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network

Take Action

Help us make a difference for kinship and grandfamilies by getting involved:

Read the Full Report

Dive into the details of the 2024 State of Grandfamilies & Kinship Care Report and discover the challenges and solutions highlighted.

Sign-Up for Alerts

Be the first to know about new resources and learning opportunities by signing up for email alerts from Generations United.

Share the Report

Spread the word and help raise awareness by sharing the report on your social media channels.

Ask a Question

Have questions about the report or want to learn more? Reach out to us for more information.

Advocacy

Join the movement to better support grandfamilies/kinship families.

Acknowledgments

Generations United extends sincere thanks to all who made this report possible. We are especially grateful to Amy Goyer for authoring the report and to our Generations United team—Ana Beltran, Jamarl D. Clark, Jaia Lent, Karen Gillespie, Chelsi Rhoades, Sheri Steinig, Fabiola Venegas-Ramos, Ilonka Walker, Maari Weiss, and Robyn Wind—for their invaluable support and contributions. A special thanks to Iona Jenkins, Keonte Jones, Nafeis Robinson, Laurie Tapozada, and Marisa VanZile for sharing their stories. We also appreciate the expert insights from Dr. Michael Robert, Superintendent of Osborn School District, Angela Tobin from Kinship Caregivers Connect, Tyreasa Washington from ChildTrends, Tara Reynon from the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), and Emily Peeler from the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law. Six Half Dozen Design Studio designed the infographics and report. We thank Centene Corporation for their support in funding this report.