119th (2025–2027)
S. 5065
This bill expands protections and support for the millions of children being raised by relatives or close family friends outside the traditional foster care system, commonly known as kinship or grandfamilies. The legislation amends the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to ensure that kinship families receive better resources, including requiring that child welfare agencies prioritize placing children with relatives, support licensing relatives as foster parents, and create community networks to assist kinship caregivers. The bill also mandates that child abuse prevention programs provide specialized training and services tailored to kinship caregivers, such as help managing children's behavioral and mental health challenges, and tracks how many children are diverted from the foster care system to live with relatives. The changes aim to address the unique circumstances of kinship families and improve coordination of evidence-based practices to support these arrangements, which the bill notes currently serve about 2.4 million children with relatively little structured support compared to the formal foster care system.