A number of states have developed policies, practice guides, and other resources that guide practice in promptly identifying relatives, providing the required notice to relatives, and expediting relative placements of children who enter foster care.

Minnesota
Minnesota has developed detailed policies on placing children on an emergency basis with relatives.  Minnesota also has developed a Relative Search Best Practice Guide that provides in-depth information on (1) how to identify and contact relatives, including fathers and paternal relatives; (2) making assessment and placement decisions based on best interest of the child and consistent with the Indian Child Welfare Act; and (3) notice requirements regarding the permanency hearing.  The Guide also addresses the supervisor’s role in and organizational supports for relative search efforts. 

Oregon
Oregon has comprehensive policies on the rights of relatives when children enter foster care.  The state’s policies address relative involvement in case planning and court hearings, communication and visitation, and the Department’s  responsibility to make diligent efforts to place children and youth with relatives.

Missouri
Missouri’s policy guides caseworkers and supervisors through the procedures to be followed  in “Agency Arranged Relative or Kinship Care Due to the Children’s Division Legal Custody”. It describes the required actions prior and following placement, the relative licensure process, and placement in a currently licensed relative home.

Nebraska
Nebraska has defined the “due diligence requirement” of the law regarding the identification and notification of relatives. The Nebraska Child Welfare Policy Manual  states that “due diligence” includes “at minimum, asking the parent or guardian and the child, when appropriate, for information; following up on leads provided by collateral contacts or family members; and if parent’s whereabouts are unknown, making a referral to the Federal Parent Locator Service.  Efforts made and the results of these efforts must be documented.”

North Carolina
North Carolina has developed a practice guide,  Reaching Out to Relatives When Children Enter Foster Care, that  offers practical suggestions for meeting the State’s policy and legal standards for (1) diligently searching for and (2) giving adequate notice to extended family when children enter foster care.

North Dakota
North Dakota’s Senate Bill No. 2087 requires, following the removal of a child from foster care and for the purpose of foster care placement, that “due diligence” be used in identifying and providing notice to all parents, grandparents, and any other adult relative suggested by the parents and grandparents about the  child’s removal, the relative’s options with respect to the care and placement of the child, the requirements to become a foster family, and how subsidized guardianship payments may be received. 

Oklahoma
Oklahoma’s statute, enacted after the passage of Fostering Connections, requires the state to notify relatives not only for suitable placement but also “to maintain the child’s connection to kin or culture.” 

Arkansas
Arkansas, in its law enacted after Fostering Connections, specifically defined the exceptions to the identification and notification requirements “due to family or domestic violence”.  The law states that: “The notice provided under this subsection is not required if the adult grandparents or other adult relatives have: (A) a pending charge or past conviction or pleas of guilty or nolo contendere for family or domestic violence; or (B) a true finding of maltreatment in the Child Maltreatment Central Registry.”

Notification Letters.  Several states have developed template letters to alert relatives to their options to participate in the care and placement of the child. 

Iowa
Iowa has developed a Relative Letter that is used to notify the child’s relatives that the child has been removed from the parents’ home and ask if they are willing to be considered for placement of the child or if they would want to provide assistance or support for the child when they do not want to be considered for placement. The form identifies the possible resources available for the relative if the relative takes placement of the child and many of the requirements for the relative to become a licensed foster parent. The materials include Instructions for completing the Relative Letter, a Notice to Relative Worksheet and Worksheet Instructions. The instructions make clear that the caseworker is to complete one copy of the Notice to Relatives for each household of the child’s grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives that the parents identify, mail originals to the relatives and make a copy of the each form to be kept in the child’s case file.

Michigan
Michigan has developed a Relative Letter that alerts the relative to the child’s placement and includes two forms: (1) a Relative Search Information Form which relatives can use to provide contact information for other family members who may be interested in being contacted for support of the child; (2) a Relative Response Form which relatives can use to indicate the type of support they are able to provide the child as well as information on being a placement resource.

New York
New York has developed a “KinGAP notification letter” that alerts relatives to the child’s foster care placement and describes the ways that how, they as relatives can assist the child.

Oregon
Oregon has developed a Relative Letter that alerts relatives to the child’s placement and contains two forms:  (1) a Relative Contact Information Form; and (2) a Relative Response Form. 

The Children’s Defense Fund has developed a Sample Notice Letter that may be a resource for States and Tribes.

Contents of Notification Letters

California, in its law that went into effect on October 11, 2009, outlines the options the must be explained to relatives in the written notice that is provided to them California law mandates that  relatives be given an explanation of the various options to participate in the care and placement of the child and support  for the child’s family, including any options that may be lost by failing to respond.  Specifically, the notice must provide:

• Information about caring for the child while the family receives reunification services with the goal of returning the child to the parent or guardian
• How to becomes a foster family home or approved relative or non-relative extended family members
• Additional services and support that are available in out-of-home placements
• Information about the Kin-GAP program, the CalWorks program for approved relative caregivers, adoption and adoption assistance
• Other options for contact with the child, including, but not limited to visits   The law also specifies that it is the child's social worker who must  immediately begin conducting an investigation to identify and  locate the child's grandparents and other adult relatives, who must immediately provide the specified written notification and, when appropriate, oral notification.        

Minnesota
Minnesota’s law, enacted in response to the federal law, states that notice to relatives must include information about “how to complete an application and how to request a variance from licensing standards that do not present a safety or health risk to the child in the home.”

What is the Federal Parent Locator Service?

A key source of information to aid in locating children’s parents and other relatives is the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS).  The FPLS is an assembly of information systems operated by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) to assist states in locating noncustodial parents, putative fathers, and custodial parties for the establishment of paternity and child support obligations as well as the enforcement and modification of orders for child support, custody and visitation. It also identifies support orders or support cases involving the same parties in different states. Developed in cooperation with the states, employers, federal agencies, and the judiciary, the FPLS was expanded by Welfare Reform to include:

• The National Directory of New Hires (NDNH): a central repository of employment, unemployment insurance, and wage data from State Directories of New Hires, State Workforce Agencies, and Federal agencies.
• The Federal Case Registry (FCR): a national database that contains information on individuals in child support cases and child support orders.
• The Federal Offset Program (FOP): a program that collects past-due child support payments from the tax refund of parents who have been ordered to pay child support.
• The Federal Administrative Offset Program (FAOP): a program that intercepts certain Federal payments in order to collect past-due child support.
• The Passport Denial Program (PPD): a program that works with the Secretary of State in denying passports of any person certified owing child support debt greater than $2,500.
• The Multistate Financial Institution Data Match (MSFIDM): a program that allows child support agencies a means of locating financial assets of individuals owing child support.

Additionally, the FPLS also has access to external information sources such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DoD), National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Is it likely that information will be available on the FPLS regarding the parents of children served by child welfare system? Yes.  If a child’s family has a current or former welfare case, if the parents have been divorced, if paternity has been established, or if the child is on Medicaid, the FPLS probably has information on the child’s parents.

Some states have developed policies and practices to guide the use of state and federal child support data in locating parents and other relatives of children who enter foster care.

Arizona
Arizona’s Department of Child Support Enforcement assists the child welfare agency with child support data that can help in finding find non-custodial fathers

Michigan
Michigan IV-D Child Support Manual: Department of Human Services specifically describes foster care case information updates to help in locating parents and other relatives.

New York
New York’s  Administrative Directive:  Access to Federal Parent Locator Services (FPLS), State Parent Locator Service (SPLS), and Additional Financial Information in Child Welfare Cases for the Purposes of Permanency provides a procedure for child welfare staff to receive information from child support staff regarding absent parents, including their location, employment information and certain financial information for purposes of establishing parentage and developing permanency plan for children in foster care.  Form OCFS-LDSS-7031 Transmittal for Parent Locator Service Search is used to request information on missing parents.

Administration for Children and Families.  The Federal Parent Locator Service.

Center for Social Service Research, University of California, Berkeley.  Promising practices in concurrent planning:  Early search for relatives and/or absent parents and resolution of paternity.

Child Trends.  Identification and Notice to Relatives Checklist. 

Children’s Defense Fund.  Identification and Notice to Grandparents and Other Relatives

Child Welfare Information Gateway.  Placement of Children with Relatives:  (July 2010)

Grandfamilies State Law and Policy Resource Center: 

National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System: New Notification Requirements May Help Fathers and Paternal Relatives Become Involved With Their Children and The Engagement of Fathers and Relatives Through the Fostering Connections to Success Act

QIC News: National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System:  Making the Child Support-Child Welfare Connection Work for Kids.