This story was originally published by The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. Sign up for The Imprint’s free newsletters here.
The percentage of relatives taking in Minnesota foster children has almost doubled in the past decade, and a new nonprofit legal group wants them paired with lawyers so they don’t have to battle alone in the family courts.
Keeping Families Connected Minnesota, launched in early October, provides free or low-cost consultation and representation to kinship caregivers in the state who have stepped in to foster or adopt children who’ve experienced abuse and neglect at home or those who’ve lost a parent due to a death or another family crisis. Kinship caregivers eligible for the assistance include non-relative caregivers who have a close relationship to a child, such as a coach, neighbor or close family friend.
Executive Director Joanna Woolman said she launched the nonprofit after receiving “hundreds and hundreds” of calls over the last decade from kinship caregivers looking for legal advice. A professor who represented parents as a public defender in her early career, Woolman launched the nonprofit while on sabbatical from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
“There is no right to counsel,” she said. “There’s nowhere to go, and there’s few reliable attorneys stepping up to help relatives.”
Like most of the nation, Minnesota provides court-appointed lawyers to low-income parents accused of harming their children, and lawyers or guardians ad litem to their children. Kinship caregivers do not get the same representation, however, and often struggle to find free legal support, Woolman confirmed after meeting with legal service providers statewide.
Two attorneys staff the group’s hotline from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Caregivers who need further legal support can set up an appointment to discuss issues including foster care licensing, placement decisions, adoption and public benefits.
In the days after its launch, the hotline received at least 25 calls based on referrals and its outreach work with local community organizations, like kinship navigator programs and family resource centers.
In some cases — based on the urgency of the matter and staff availability — the nonprofit will also be available to provide legal representation in court. So far, staff have agreed to represent at least 10 caregivers in Stearns, Hennepin, Ramsey, Benton and Dakota counties.
I don’t think that children forfeit their right to family membership just because some adult members of that family are struggling.
Michelle Chalmers, Operations Manager at Keeping Families CONNECTED Minnesota
While the hotline calls and consultation meetings are free, clients who are fully represented by the nonprofit’s attorneys will be charged for filing fees and court costs unless they can’t afford it.
The work is funded by a mix of public and private money, with sources including the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families, the Sauer Family Foundation and Greater Twin Cities United Way. The aim is to fill the gap in legal support for these caregivers amid an increase in demand for their homes.
An ever-growing number of foster children in the state are placed with relatives, according to the state Department of Children, Youth and Families: 66% in 2024, compared to around 36% in 2013. The number of children placed with families in Minnesota tops the national average, which is roughly 40%, according to federal data.
Tinitha “Pearll” Warren, recently elected to the Minneapolis City Council, is among them.
In an interview, Warren said she was unaware of the newly created Keeping Families Connected Minnesota. But she added that she could have used the legal support they provide before she adopted her granddaughter, now 9, in 2021. Guidance on things like how to seek medical care for the child before she was officially her guardian, for example.
Warren called kinship caregiving a “war” where she had to fight her granddaughter’s parents, her school and child welfare workers for basic benefits, resources and custody. She said she appeared in court alone at least eight times while fighting for her granddaughter because she could not find legal representation. The process left her wondering what rights she and her granddaughter had.
“This is what you’ve got to understand: When you go to court, the guardian speaks for the kid. Child protection speaks for the state. Nobody’s talking for you as a kinship caregiver,” she said.
Stories like that are what drove the creation of Keeping Families Connected Minnesota.
Operations Manager Michelle Chalmers described the importance of placing children with kin as essential because it keeps them connected to the communities that care about them. Her statements are backed by research showing that youth placed with kinship caregivers often do better emotionally and behaviorally compared to their peers in non-kin placements and avoid being frequently moved from one foster home to another.
“We all have a right to family membership,” Chalmers said. “And I don’t think that children forfeit their right to family membership just because some adult members of that family are struggling.”
A lack of support for kinship caregivers
Other states have also worked on improving kinship caregivers’ access to legal representation. In 2019, Washington lawmakers passed a bill to create a “kinship care legal aid coordinator.” A bill introduced several times before the New York state Legislature would have created a Kinship Legal Network, an $8 million fund overseen by the state. Under the network, the money would be distributed to nonprofit legal groups representing kin in family court hearings and helping them obtain public benefits for children in their care.
Under a new federal rule that went into effect this summer, states can be reimbursed for the cost of legal representation for low-income kinship caregivers.
This is what you’ve got to understand: When you go to court, the guardian speaks for the kid. Child protection speaks for the state. Nobody’s talking for you as a kinship caregiver.
Tinitha “Pearll” Warren, kinship caregiver and incoming Minneapolis City Councilmember
Yet nonprofits that focus exclusively on the legal needs of kinship caregivers are rare in the country, despite how central a role relatives and kin play in caring for foster children, and their high level of financial need.
Roughly half of kinship families live in poverty, and a third receive financial assistance and foster care payments, according to a 2021 study by researchers at the University of South Carolina and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Published last year, a national survey of relative caregivers found that more than 60% had an annual household income of less than $50,000. These grandparents and other relatives are likely to be single and African American, federal data shows.
“Many family members, especially in communities of color — and we know those communities are hit harder by child welfare — are literally asked at the drop of a dime, to take one, two, three, four kids without any training, financial resources, day care, schooling options, bussing options, summer camp options, medical support or equipment for kids who have special needs,” Woolman said.
And yet when it comes to navigating the family courts in what can be complex cases, relatives are left to fend for themselves.
Jonie Cannon, a director for the Urban League Twin Cities’ kinship navigator program, called the new nonprofit a “blessing.” Her program supports kinship caregivers, offering them emergency financial assistance or daily necessities such as sheets, pillows and clothing for children. But there are no lawyers on staff to help with legal concerns, she said.
“And sometimes it’s not just the food, the clothing, the bedding, the transportation,” that’s needed, Cannon said. “It could be legal support — and that’s where Keeping Families Connected comes in.”
Fostering Media Connections, The Imprint’s parent company also receives funding from the Sauer Family Foundation.
