Promoting Permanency Through Kinship Families Act

This bill amends parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act to remove barriers and encourage kinship guardianship, foster, or adoptive placements for children who cannot be safely cared for in their own homes. It aims to promote kinship care as a permanency option, remove barriers to safe care by relatives and fictive kin, and support resources and services for kin caregivers.

Sec. 3, Promoting permanency placements for children and youth: Requires state child welfare plans to substantiate with clear and convincing data that they are addressing disproportionality and disparities, and to make prompt, active, and continuous efforts to identify and locate relatives or fictive kin as potential placements. It also requires documentation if a kinship placement is not in the child's best interest, and allows states to file for termination of parental rights after 24 months in foster care only with clear and convincing evidence that it is in the child's best interest, services have been provided, and the kinship caregiver has had a meaningful opportunity to express an opinion. Exceptions apply if a parent is actively engaged in services, or if the basis is principally incarceration or detention by DHS or deportation.

Sec. 4, Criminal records checks of all kinship caregivers: Requires states to have procedures ensuring that kinship placement is not denied based on past allegations or findings of abuse or neglect without particularized information showing a current safety threat. It also requires criminal records checks on kinship caregivers and other adults in the home, but a past criminal record cannot serve as a bar to kinship licensing without particularized information showing a current safety threat.

Sec. 5, Prohibition on imposition of upper age limit for kinship caregivers: Requires states to disregard the age of an individual who has attained 18 years of age when determining whether the individual is qualified to be a kinship caregiver or the appropriate placement for a child.

Sec. 6, Mandatory participation in kinship guardianship assistance program: Makes state participation in the kinship guardianship assistance program mandatory (removing the option for states to choose). It also reduces the required time a child must have lived with a relative before eligibility for kinship guardianship assistance from at least 6 consecutive months to at least 3 consecutive months.

Sec. 7, Elimination of the AFDC eligibility requirement for foster care maintenance payments for children placed in a foster family home: Eliminates the requirement that a child must have been eligible for AFDC in order to receive foster care maintenance payments, for children removed from the home of a relative or caretaker and placed in a foster family home.

Sec. 8, Promoting safe and stable families through kinship placement support services programs: Adds "kinship placement support services" to the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program, including crisis stabilization services, family finding, re-establishing family relationships, and other assistance to strengthen and support kinship families. It also requires states to maintain the same level of state expenditures for kinship placements as in fiscal year 2025.