Nine percent of Kentucky’s kids lived with relatives other than their parents from 2016 through 2018. This is the highest rate in the nation, according to recent data from the Census Bureau.
This high percentage of Kentucky kids living with relatives means service providers like Jewish Family and Career Services in Louisville have even more caregiver relatives to help.
Joann Kalb, a therapist, works with many grandparents who are raising grandchildren and leads support groups. Many of these children, she says, deal with what’s happened through behavioral health problems.
The nine percent of kids living with relatives is an increase from previous years – six percent of Kentucky children lived with relatives between 2009 and 2011.
Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said there are many reasons why children end up without parents, sometimes because of substance abuse or mental health issues, or incarceration. She says the numbers should push state government to release more money for a program called kinship care. That program stopped taking new caregivers in 2013.
The legislature allocated $5.1 million for the kinship care program for the next two years. But in a hearing in August, Cabinet for Health and Family Service officials said that money was going to a separate program.
