New York Expands Eligibility for Kin Who Want to Foster Children

When caseworkers remove children from their homes and place them into foster care, it can be jarring and traumatic. A new law in New York aims to ease the transition by enabling a wider circle of family members and even non-relatives to become the kids’ foster parents.

That law, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed in late October, broadens the definition of relatives. Previously, only certain blood relatives of a parent of a child in foster care could petition courts to become the child’s foster parents.

Now, in addition to blood relatives, the courts will consider non-blood relatives, such as people related to the child by marriage or adoption, and even so-called fictive kin 

Senator Montgomery said,

They [foster children] are much more likely to be successful if they have an environment which meets their needs in many different ways, including having a culturally familiar upbringing,” 

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