Kinship Policy Lab

Policy Briefs

Analysis for the decisions being made now

Briefs take up a live question in kinship and child welfare policy and work through it in full: what the evidence does and does not show, where the arguments talk past each other, and what the decision in front of policymakers actually is. Each brief is published here in full and as a PDF for citation.

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  1. · 19 pages

    Kin-First and Child-First: A Response to AEI

    From kin-first to child-first: common ground for all children in nonparental care

    Ali Caliendo, Ph.D.

    A response to the American Enterprise Institute brief and panel on “kin-first” foster care. Where the critics are right, where they are not, and what child-first policy should look like for every child living apart from their parents — including the many who never enter foster care.

    • Kinship care
    • Child welfare
    • Hidden foster care
    • Licensing
    • Research methods
    Read the brief

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