Increase Exits from Foster Care to Permanence through Guardianship

Trends: Timely Exits From Foster Care to GUARDIANSHIP

Why Is This Trend Important?   

Guardianship allows children to live permanently with a relative or other adult caregiver, leave the foster care system, and maintain existing family relationships without having to terminate parental rights.  This option is particularly important for African and Native American children who are more likely to be living with relatives and want to maintain familial and cultural ties.    

Timely guardianship can ensure that children leave the foster care system to a permanent home and avoid the negative consequences associated with aging out of foster care.  It is particularly important for the 20,000 children who leave care every year with no permanent home, as well as those who have stayed in care for too many years.   

What Do We Know About The Trend?   

Nationally, only 5% of the children in foster care exited to guardianship in 2006. [i]   While current numbers are small, guardianship continues to grow, particularly as the number of relatives raising children in the foster care system grows and as increased federal resources become available through the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.  Research shows that the availability of guardianship as an option and full understanding of how it differs from adoption often causes many families to adopt children who otherwise would have stayed in foster care. [ii] Guardianship supports a relative’s ability to be a permanent caretaker without a mandated termination of parental rights for the children.