Howard County is investing $122,000 to keep families together.

In the county, only about 25% of children removed from their homes are placed with other family members rather than foster parents not related to them. To increase that, Howard County will launch the Kinship Care & Family Finder pilot program this summer, led by the county’s social services department, to place more children with relatives and other trusted adults already in their lives, known as kinship caregivers.

The program also aims to place fewer children in group homes and improve the lives of foster children, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said.

“This is another investment to ensure that children who could be eligible are seen, are heard and have their best chance to thrive,” Ball said.

A kinship caregiver is “anyone who is raising a child who is not your biological, legally adopted, or legal foster child,” according to the Maryland Department of Human Services. Usually, that means an adult related to a child by blood or marriage, like a grandparent, aunt or uncle. Adults who are not relatives, like a family friend or neighbor, can become kinship caregivers, too.

Howard County will use the new funding to offer more resources to families and better place children, Ball said. The county also will train caregivers. While foster parents get licensed and prepared before receiving a child, kin caregivers often find themselves unexpectedly caring for loved ones.

The county will invest in professional development for social workers, too, because burnout and high turnover rates can disrupt and lower the quality of care for kids in the system, according to a news release.

Last December, the Maryland Department of Human Services shifted to a “kin-first” approach that guides all of its decisions. The department said it’s expanding efforts to locate kin and will offer kin-specific training, and the Howard County pilot is part of that reprioritization.

Through 2024, fewer than 25% of Maryland children were placed with kin, according to the Maryland Department of Human Services; that increased slightly to 27% as of February. But between October 2024, when a new state law prioritizing kinship care went into effect, and April 2025, 48% of kids who went into and remained in out-of-home care were placed with kin, the department said.

At the federal level, child welfare officials have preferred kinship care for placement since 1996, said Ana Beltran, director of the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network under the advocacy network Generations United.

Research shows that children who stay with relatives do better than kids placed with foster care parents that are strangers to them for “common sense” reasons, said Beltran.

“They remain connected to their family, their culture, their community, their siblings,” Beltran said. “But also, things that are less obvious, like better mental health outcomes, better behavioral health outcomes — just feeling loved, frankly.”

In Howard County, 25% of the 90 kids in out-of-home care are staying with Kin, Ball said. He hopes the new pilot program will boost those placements to 50%.

Other long-term goals include “increased permanency, fewer repeat placements and improved exits from out-of-home care,” Ball said. Prioritizing kin can also speed up safe reunification with birth parents, minimize trauma and reduce trafficking risks, according to the Maryland Department of Human Services.

Across the country, over 2.4 million children are being raised by kin. But the vast majority of them are in informal care, Beltran said, meaning the arrangements fall outside a child welfare agency’s custody.

The state is focused on helping kinship caregivers become licensed, which makes them eligible for the same financial support as foster parents. That money can make kinship care more feasible for families. Still, some kin caregivers either don’t know that’s an option or choose to reject government involvement in their lives, Beltran said.

States with the highest kinship placement rates, as far as Beltran knows, hover around 50%. She said while there will always be a role for non-related foster parents, the goal should be to reach close to 100% kin placement.

“Oftentimes, children who have family members and relatives who live close, they always wonder why they weren’t picked, why they weren’t selected, what was wrong with them,” Ball said. “We’re letting them know there was nothing wrong with them. We’re making these connections so that they are valued.”

But many areas, not just Howard County, struggle to get it done.

“As a caseworker, you should have a directory of names of non-related foster parents who are ready to go. They’ve been licensed. Their house, you know it’s safe,” Beltran said. “If Joey comes to you and you have to go looking for grandma, auntie, maybe auntie is four states over. It’s a lot more work. … But it’s important work.”

The difficulty can be compounded by burnout. Caseworkers within the social services department in Howard County faced an almost 100% turnover rate over the past 12 months.

The county is funding a training program that it hopes will reduce turnover, improve employee morale and productivity so that caseworkers can better serve these families, according to a news release.

Beltran said it’s important to invest in lowering case loads as well as mentoring and training staff. Families can develop trust when they’re not assigned a revolving door of social workers.

“In the instances where a relative is available and willing, we want to make those warm connections,” Ball said. “We want to help a family grow together.”

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