Kinship Care in Allegheny County: Recent Trends and Child Experiences (2010-2025)

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services is responsible for protecting children under age 18 from abuse or neglect. When a child cannot safely remain at home, a judge may order placement outside of the home. Whenever possible, ACDHS prioritizes placing children with relatives or close family friends; this type of placement is known as kinship care.

Kinship care prioritizes keeping children connected to family, culture and community. This type of care reduces trauma, promotes stability, maintains cultural and familial ties, and performs better than other placement types on key child welfare indicators such as placement stability, permanency and reduced re-entry.

Over the last decade, kinship care has become the majority placement setting for children entering care in Allegheny County, with current rates more than double 2010 levels and well above state and national averages. This shift reflects years of sustained investment, training and data-driven advocacy. Allegheny County’s “kin-first culture” is supported by a long-standing partnership with A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI), the County’s specialized kinship provider responsible for training, licensing and offering 24/7 support for kinship caregivers.

The data brief—Kinship Care in Allegheny County: Recent Trends and Child Experiences—examines more than a decade of integrated data to illustrate how kinship care works, whom it serves and its impact across Allegheny County, including placement trends from 2010 through 2025, demographic patterns, care complexity, placement stability, safety incidents, permanency outcomes and re-entry rates.

Key Takeaways

• Kinship care is the predominant placement type in Allegheny County; since 2017, more than 60% of placements began in kinship care.
• Racial disparities in access have narrowed significantly. Before 2018, White children entered kinship care at higher rates, but since 2018, Black children have entered kinship care slightly more often.
• Kinship care increased across every age group. Teens (12 through 17) were once placed in congregate settings 70% of the time but now enter kinship care most of the time.
• Placement stability is higher in kinship settings. Children in kinship care experience fewer disruptive moves (about one per 637 days).
• Sibling connections are more often preserved. The majority of children in kinship care (78%) were placed with at least one sibling, a rate significantly higher than other settings.
• Safety outcomes are similar to or better than other settings. Maltreatment by resource caregivers is extremely rare, occurring at almost identical low rates in both kinship and foster care.
• Re-entry rates are lower for children who reunified with family from kinship placements. Youth exiting placement from kinship care re-entered out-of-home placement at lower rates (17.5%) than those exiting non-relative foster or congregate care.

How the County Uses This Information and Why It Matters

The County monitors and analyzes placement data to strengthen the child welfare system and improve family outcomes. As kinship care has grown in prevalence, insights from these data help the County: 

• Track equitable implementation across age, race and care complexity.
• Inform decisions about resource allocation, provider support and placement processes.
• Engage family networks earlier through the use of kinship navigators and improved family-finding efforts.
• Ensure practice is aligned with data-based evidence showing what best supports safety, stability and permanency.
• Uphold transparency and public understanding of child welfare performance.

This information supports accountability and guides ongoing improvements that make child welfare more responsive, relational and effective.

What’s Next

Allegheny County will continue strengthening kinship care through ongoing investment in caregiver support, family-finding, and collaboration with ASCI and other community partners, as well as through the sharing of lessons with other jurisdictions working to build or expand kin-first cultures. 

The upward trend in kinship care has already reshaped Allegheny County’s child welfare landscape and offers a roadmap for other communities working toward more stable, relational and culturally grounded placement systems.

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.