Child welfare jurisdictions increasingly place foster children with kinship foster parents as a means of meeting their need for stability, family connection, and behavioral and emotional support. However, the lack of financial and educational assistance provided to kin by child welfare authorities often undermines these caregivers’ ability to provide effective and lasting care for the children in their homes. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to understand how formal training and licensure processes can aid kinship foster parents in facilitating positive outcomes for children and youth in the foster care system. Specifically, we investigated the barriers experienced by kinship foster parents while trying to access existing licensure-based training and supports, as well as the initial outcomes of a kin-tailored licensure training curriculum alternatingly administered in in-person and virtual delivery formats. Participants reported that incomplete or inaccurate communication about licensing processes, practical difficulties in attending training, irrelevant session content, and stringent licensing requirements acted as barriers to accessing these resources. However, participants in the kin-specific licensure training administered in this study reported high levels of learning related to key parenting competencies and increased awareness of kinship permanency supports, although these outcomes appeared to be less pronounced among those receiving the training in a virtual format. These findings suggest that researchers and policymakers should consider developing, implementing, and evaluating further initiatives to provide accessible and tailored supports to kinship foster parents as a means of improving outcomes for the children in their care.

儿童福利司法管辖区越来越多地将寄养儿童与亲属养父母作为满足他们对稳定、家庭联系以及行为和情感支持的需求的一种手段。然而，儿童福利当局缺乏向亲属提供的财政和教育援助，往往会削弱这些看护者在家中为儿童提供有效和持久照顾的能力。本研究使用混合方法来了解正式培训和许可程序如何帮助亲属养父母促进寄养系统中儿童和青少年的积极成果。具体来说，我们调查了亲属养父母在尝试获得现有的基于执照的培训和支持时遇到的障碍，以及以面对面和虚拟交付形式交替管理的亲属定制执照培训课程的初步成果。参与者报告说，关于许可流程的不完整或不准确的沟通、参加培训的实际困难、不相关的课程内容以及严格的许可要求是访问这些资源的障碍。然而，在本研究中进行的亲属特定执照培训的参与者报告说，与关键育儿能力相关的学习水平很高，并且对亲属关系永久支持的认识有所提高，尽管这些结果在以虚拟形式接受培训的人中似乎不太明显。这些发现表明，研究人员和政策制定者应考虑制定、实施、