Child protection workers are urged to place children with kin whenever possible. And extended family members do often provide the best placement options.
But some children are murdered in “fictive kin” (family friends) or relative placements. For example, the court placed six-year-old Justis Burland with friends of his grandmother. They duct taped him to a wall and beat him to death over three months. Three-year-old Zayden Lawson was similarly slowly killed by his cousin, her boyfriend, and their childcare provider.
Standards are needed for all placements, including kinship. Providers should first be carefully vetted, then monitored using child-centered practices — such as not giving caregivers advance notice of placement reviews, and interviewing children separately from the adults.