Kinship Care in California: What Relatives Need to Know
When a child is removed from their home in California, the county looks for family. A grandparent, aunt, uncle, older sibling, or family friend may get a call quickly asking them to take a child — sometimes a child they haven't seen in years, sometimes a newborn.
This is kinship care, and the rules are different for relatives than they are for non-related foster families. Here's what you need to understand if you've received that call or you're trying to be prepared for one.
Why Relatives Are Prioritized
California's child-welfare statutes include Welfare & Institutions Code §16000 et seq., which set child-welfare objectives and support a relative-placement preference. When a child is removed, the county assesses relatives and NREFMs before other placement options when consistent with the child's needs and applicable law. This preference reflects evidence that placement with relatives can help preserve family and community connections.
About 45,000 children are in California's foster care system at any given time. A substantial portion live with relatives — some formally approved, some on emergency placement pending approval.
The Emergency Placement Timeline
Relative caregivers who agree to take a child on an emergency basis don't have to wait for full Resource Family Approval (RFA) before a child comes through the door. Instead:
- A preliminary home safety check and criminal background check (CLETS) is conducted immediately
- The county places the child provisionally
- Within 5 business days, the relative must submit Form RFA-01A (Resource Family Application) and RFA-01B (Criminal Record Statement) to begin the formal RFA process
That five-day window is not optional. Failing to submit on time can delay the formal RFA process and your request for applicable emergency funding.
Completing the Full RFA as a Kinship Caregiver
After emergency placement, relatives must complete the full RFA process — the same process that non-relative foster families go through, including training, home safety inspection, background checks, and the family evaluation. The timeline target is 90 days, though in large counties this is routinely exceeded.
For relatives who were not expecting to become caregivers and have no prior involvement with the foster care system, this process can be disorienting. You're simultaneously managing a newly placed child — who may be traumatized, grieving, or have unmet medical needs — while completing paperwork, attending orientation, finishing 12 hours of pre-approval training, and scheduling home inspections.
AB 2830 (2024) directs CDSS to implement a simplified kinship RFA process by 2027; implementation details remain subject to confirmation. That simplification is still being developed, so current relative caregivers generally navigate the standard process.
Free Download
Get the California Foster Care Quick-Start Checklist
Everything in this article as a printable checklist — plus action plans and reference guides you can start using today.
Funding During the Gap: What You're Owed
The gap between emergency placement and full RFA approval is a financial vulnerability for many kinship caregivers. California has two programs to address it:
Emergency Assistance (EA): Short-term bridge funding for relatives with emergency placements who are not yet approved. These payments are smaller than regular foster care rates and have strict timelines.
Approved Relative Caregiver (ARC) Program: Once approved, relatives caring for children who don't meet federal IV-E eligibility requirements may receive state-funded ARC payments. Confirm eligibility and benefit amount with the county. Without ARC, some relatives would receive nothing for caring for children whose cases don't qualify for federal funding — a gap that unfairly penalized kin caregivers before ARC was created.
Kin-GAP: When Guardianship Is the Right Path
If reunification isn't going to happen and you're not seeking adoption, legal guardianship through the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (Kin-GAP) may be an option for relative caregivers.
Kin-GAP works like this:
- The court establishes you as the child's legal guardian
- Eligible relatives may receive long-term Kin-GAP support; confirm eligibility, payment amount, and duration with the county
For grandparents raising grandchildren, or aunts and uncles who have become de facto parents, Kin-GAP provides permanency and stability without the complexity of adoption (which would legally sever the child's relationship with their birth parents — something many kinship caregivers want to avoid).
Background Checks: The Relative Complication
All adults 18 and older in your household must complete LiveScan fingerprinting. DOJ clearances typically take three business days; FBI federal clearances typically take five business days. A criminal-history hit may require additional review or an exemption, and CDSS says a background check involving criminal history can take up to 75 days.
For relative caregivers who entered the system quickly due to an emergency, a criminal record issue that might have been resolved in advance with planning can instead cause significant delays and anxiety mid-placement.
What Many Relatives Don't Know to Ask
Based on the common questions in California's kinship care community, three things regularly catch relative caregivers off guard:
RFA covers the permanency pathways: RFA approval covers foster care, adoption, and legal guardianship. If you later pursue adoption or guardianship, the approval does not require you to restart the full RFA process.
You can request a Child and Family Team meeting: CFT meetings are where all stakeholders — including you, the child's social worker, teachers, therapists, and birth parents — discuss the case plan. As a relative caregiver, you have the right to participate in these meetings and have your perspective formally heard.
You can advocate for the child's level of care assessment: If the child in your care has documented medical, behavioral, or emotional needs, make sure those needs are reflected in their LOC assessment. This directly affects your monthly payment and access to support services.
The California Foster Care Licensing Guide includes a dedicated section on kinship and relative caregiver pathways — covering the ARC program, Kin-GAP, emergency placement timelines, and how to navigate the RFA process when you were thrown into it overnight rather than planning for months.
Get Your Free California Foster Care Quick-Start Checklist
Download the California Foster Care Quick-Start Checklist — a printable guide with checklists, scripts, and action plans you can start using today.