The reliance on relatives and other kin by child welfare systems in the United States has grown exponentially in the past 10 years. This is cause for celebration, but not when it’s done in ways that are unjust to everyone involved.
In recent years, the practice of kinship diversion has gained traction as a viable alternative to formal foster care within the child welfare system. Proponents of this method argue that they offer a more family-centered approach, keeping children out of state custody and placing them with relatives instead.
However, beneath the surface of these practices lies a deep and troubling erosion of family rights and stability, practices that are fundamentally antithetical to the values of family decision-making and legal oversight. That is why critics, including myself, have come to call it “hidden foster care.”
To novice practitioners or new child welfare leaders, it may appear that this practice empowers families by keeping children within their extended family network. But family coercion is not family empowerment, and hidden foster care is all too often carried out in a coercive way.
Let’s be clear: No matter how children are separated from their parents, family coercion is the default child welfare CPS practice and happens more often than not. I base this view on having studied the practices of many child welfare jurisdictions across this nation for over 30 years, and having worked as a child welfare practitioner for almost 10 years before founding A Second Chance, Inc.
With all of the documented challenges of the formal child welfare system and foster care, it at least includes some semblance of due process and, in most states, some offer of legal counsel for the parents and children involved. In diversion cases, we see that families — especially Black, brown, and poor white ones — are harmed by hidden foster care because they are faced with enormous pressure to take in loved ones, with little or no support from the system.
They almost always have to make these family-altering choices without lawyers to advise or fight for them. When child welfare agencies divert children into kinship care without court involvement, they effectively sideline parents from the decision-making process, leaving them without a voice in their child’s future. This sidestepping of the legal system is not an act of family empowerment; it is an act of disempowerment that strips parents of their agency and autonomy.
This covert practice places children with relatives without formally designating the placement as foster care. As a result, these caregivers are left without the financial support, training or oversight that licensed foster parents receive. The implications of this are severe. Children are placed in environments that may not be adequately prepared to meet their needs, all while operating in a legal gray area that leaves the entire kinship triad vulnerable and unsupported.
The absence of legal oversight in these practices is not just a procedural flaw — it is a moral one. Court involvement is a critical safeguard in the child welfare system, ensuring that any decision to remove children from their home is made with full transparency, accountability, and a clear plan for reunification. Without this oversight, families are left to fend for themselves in an opaque system that prioritizes expediency over justice, and cost-saving over child well-being.
One of the most troubling aspects of hidden foster care is the significant barriers it creates to family reunification. Without court-ordered case plans, families are often left to navigate an opaque and unregulated system, with no clear pathway to bring their children home. The absence of judicial oversight means there is no accountability on the part of the child welfare agency, leaving children in potentially indefinite placements with relatives. This lack of structure and support does not promote family unity; it undermines it.
To add insult to injury, the instability within the child welfare workforce only exacerbates these issues. With high turnover rates and chronic understaffing, many child welfare agencies are ill-equipped to provide the consistent support that families need to successfully reunite. Caseworkers are overburdened, under-resourced, and often lack the experience necessary to guide families through these complex situations. In this context, kinship diversion/hidden foster care become not just flawed practices, but dangerous ones, placing children and families at risk of prolonged separation and unresolved trauma.
I want to be clear that while I believe hidden foster care should be eradicated, the path to doing so is not to simply place all of those children in the formal foster care system instead. Through an upstream preventative lens that narrows the front door and addresses poverty through support and not victimization, I assert fewer children will need any form of formal care as their parents will have the necessary community support and resources to care for their children without child welfare intervention.
We have a moral imperative to call this practice what it is: illegal and harmful to children and families. We must stop pretending that this behavior empowers families and, again, call it what it is: a cost saving maneuver by child welfare systems made on the backs of the poor and afraid. It is rooted in racism and classism— which are the hallmarks of child welfare practice in the United States.
Furthermore, the child welfare community is keenly aware that this illegal practice would never be acceptable or tolerated in well-resourced families and communities, as their “high-powered” lawyers would file all necessary court petitions and demand that parental and children’s rights be restored and honored.
We must advocate for a child welfare system that prioritizes family integrity, transparency and legal oversight. A system that supports families in times of crisis, rather than sidelining them. A system that ensures that child removals only occur when absolutely necessary.
In the cases where that necessity does arise, I have spent my career pushing for relatives to be the solution. But they cannot be prioritized on the cheap and with less rights. They must be supported and provided the appropriate legal protections in place for any placement through the formal foster care system. Anything less is a disservice to the families and children we claim to protect.
By ending the harmful practice of hidden foster care, we can work toward a child welfare system that truly upholds the values of family unity, justice and transparency — values that are essential to the well-being of every child and family.
