55,000 children in Kentucky are being cared for by relatives or family friends that aren't their parents. This is known as Kinship or Effective Kin Caregivers.
A report from Kentucky Youth Advocates shows that the commonwealth has six percent - double the national average of children in such care.
Shannon Moody is the chief policy and strategy manager for Kentucky Youth Advocates. She said many of the arrangements are informal.
“What we know is a lot of times, the family members, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, they're just stepping into a gap that they see as a need to help support a child or often siblings or groups of children to make sure they are well and are being taken care of.”
Moody said more formal means of care tend to have more resources available.
“We do have the option of foster care that allows for things like daily monetary stipend, help with clothing supports, help with transportation and things of that nature that are connected to foster care. Our kinship care system is just less resourced.”
However, Moody said children in kinship care situations tend to have stronger mental health outcomes than those children in foster care. She says there are more resources becoming available for kinship families, but it is a slow process.
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