Grandfamily

Grandfamily is a recently coined, infrequently used, term in the United States that refers to a family where grandparents, great-grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends are raising a child because the biological parents are unwilling or unable to do so. Legal custody of a child may or may not be involved, and the child may be related by blood, marriage or adoption. This arrangement is also known as "kinship care", "kincare" or "relative care". Kinship placement may reduce the number of home placements children experience, allow children to maintain connections to communities, schools and family members, increase the likelihood of eventual reunification with birth parents, is less costly to taxpayers than formal foster care and keeps many children out of the foster care system.

There are currently 6,660,064 children in the United States who are living in grandfamilies. Over 2.5 million grandparents living with their grandchildren are primarily responsible for the care of these children. According to a 2000 U.S. Census Bureau report, 2.4 million grandparents had primary responsibility for their coresident grandchildren younger than 18. Among grandparent caregivers, 39 percent had cared for their grandchildren for 5 or more years. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of children raised by relatives in the U.S. has increased by more than 222,000, and nearly 480,000 grandparents nationally are raising children below the federal poverty level. Relatives care for 24% of all children in foster care in the United States.