Kinship Care in Texas: Eligibility, Payments, and Court Role

Kinship care in Texas is the state’s preferred way to place a child who cannot safely stay with a parent: instead of a stranger’s foster home, the child goes to a relative, a close family friend, or another trusted adult already in the child’s life. If the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has asked you to take in a child, you are looking at background checks, a home assessment, and a set of financial and medical supports that many caregivers never fully tap into. This guide walks through who qualifies, what the approval process looks like, and the payments, coverage, and legal steps that go with the role.

Who Counts as a Kinship Caregiver

Texas Family Code Section 264.751 recognizes three types of kinship caregivers, and which category you fall into affects some of the assistance you can claim later.¹

A relative caregiver is related to the child by blood or marriage. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and adult siblings are the most common examples.
Fictive kin are not related by blood or adoption but have a longstanding, significant relationship with the child or the child’s family. A close family friend, a longtime neighbor, or a former teacher can qualify.
A designated caregiver has a longstanding, significant relationship with the child but does not fit either of the other two categories. It is the narrowest group.

All three are kinship caregivers under Texas law. You do not have to be a blood relative.

What DFPS Checks Before Approving You

You must be at least 18 and already have a relationship with the child. Beyond that, DFPS is looking at safety, not income or parenting résumé.²

Every adult in your household clears a fingerprint-based criminal background check through the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI. A conviction for a violent offense or an offense against a child is an automatic disqualifier. DFPS also checks the state child abuse and neglect registry for household members 14 and older; a confirmed “Reason to Believe” finding can block placement even if there were never criminal charges.³

The home itself has to be safe and functional. The child needs a dedicated place to sleep and space for personal belongings. DFPS is not grading the decor; they are looking for working smoke detectors, secured medications, and enough stability for a child to settle in.

The Home Assessment Timeline

Section 264.755 of the Family Code requires the kinship assessment to be less demanding than full foster care licensing while still protecting the child.¹ A caseworker will usually do a preliminary check first, then a full evaluation. If you come forward after the child has already been removed, the full written assessment is due within 15 to 30 working days depending on where you enter the case.⁴

During the full assessment, the caseworker tours your home (with particular attention to where the child will sleep), interviews every household member age three and older, and collects three non-relative and two relative references. A supervisor makes the final approval call.⁴

Have these ready before the first visit to avoid delays:

Government-issued photo ID for every adult in the home.
Social Security numbers for everyone living in the home.
Recent pay stubs, tax returns, or bank statements. Income proof is needed for certain assistance programs, not necessarily for basic placement.
A list of household members with dates of birth and relationships.
Utility bills, plus homeowner’s or renter’s insurance if you have it.

Monthly and One-Time Payments You Can Stack

This is where most kinship caregivers leave money on the table. Several programs run in parallel, and you can qualify for more than one at once.

RODC Monthly Reimbursement

The Relative and Other Designated Caregiver (RODC) payment is a monthly reimbursement set at roughly half the foster care rate. As of January 2025, the rate is $23.45 per day per child, or about $700 per month.⁵ To qualify you need all of the following:

An approved Kinship Caregiver Home Assessment.
A signed Kinship Caregiver Agreement.
Kinship Caregiver Training started.
Household income at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

For 2026, the federal poverty level for a family of four is $33,000, so the 300 percent cap is $99,000 in gross household income and covers everyone living with you, not just the caregiver.⁶ The income threshold is fairly generous. Most caregivers who miss out do so because they never signed the agreement or never started the training.

One-Time TANF Payment for Relatives

This is a separate program: a single, once-in-a-lifetime $1,000 payment to help with initial costs like bedding, clothing, and supplies. The rules are narrow:⁷

You must be at least 25.
You must be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or sibling of the child (extending to great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles).
Gross household income must be at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($66,000 for a family of four in 2026).⁶
Countable resources must be $1,000 or less.
The child must already receive TANF benefits or be newly certified for them.

Fictive kin and designated caregivers are not eligible for this payment because it requires a specific family relationship. Apply through Your Texas Benefits.⁸

Ongoing TANF Child-Only Grants

Kinship caregivers may also qualify for ongoing TANF child-only grants, sometimes called “specified relative” grants. These pay for the child’s needs and do not count the caregiver’s income in the eligibility calculation. Applications go through the same Your Texas Benefits portal.⁸

Kinship Verification Reimbursement

If you complete verification (see below), you may qualify for a one-time reimbursement for costs incurred during that process, such as medical exam fees or training materials.²

Verified Kinship Foster Home and Permanency Care Assistance

Basic kinship approval and a verified kinship foster home are not the same thing, and the financial gap between them is significant. Texas Health and Human Services created verification standards specifically for kinship caregivers that are less strict than traditional foster licensing, focused on safety rather than on training hours or physical home specifications.² Verification is worth pursuing even if you never plan to foster other children, because it is the gateway to Permanency Care Assistance.

The Permanency Care Assistance (PCA) program provides ongoing monthly payments to kinship caregivers who take permanent managing conservatorship of the child, essentially becoming the child’s permanent legal guardian through the court.⁹¹⁰⁵ To qualify you must:

Be verified as a foster parent under kinship standards.
Serve as the child’s foster parent for at least six consecutive months before becoming permanent managing conservator.
Sign the PCA agreement before the court grants permanent managing conservatorship.
Actually receive permanent managing conservatorship after the agreement is signed.

The sequence is the trap. If the court grants conservatorship before you sign the PCA agreement, eligibility is gone. Caseworkers should flag the timeline, but track it yourself.²

Medicaid for the Child

Children in DFPS conservatorship are eligible for Medicaid, which covers doctor visits, dental care, prescriptions, mental health services, and therapy. Coverage does not depend on your income or your own insurance. If a child somehow does not qualify for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is the backup. In practice, nearly every child placed through kinship care is enrolled in Medicaid once the placement is confirmed.²

Mental health care deserves early attention. Many children entering kinship care have experienced trauma, and Medicaid covers counseling and psychiatric treatment. Ask your caseworker for referrals rather than waiting for symptoms to escalate.

Tax Credits

If you are caring for a related child who lives in your home for more than half the year, you may be able to claim the Child Tax Credit. For the 2026 tax year the credit is worth up to $2,200 per qualifying child, with a refundable portion up to $1,700.¹¹ The child must be under 17 at year’s end, be claimed as your dependent, and be your son, daughter, stepchild, sibling, or a descendant of one of those (grandchild, niece, nephew).

Fictive kin caregivers have a harder path because the qualifying-relationship rule is specific. A child placed by an authorized agency can sometimes qualify as an “eligible foster child” for tax purposes, but the rules are technical enough that a tax professional or a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site is worth the visit. Even if the Child Tax Credit is out of reach, look at whether you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit or head-of-household filing status.

Your Role in Court and Access to a Lawyer

You are not a formal party to the CPS case, but you are not invisible either. Your caseworker must notify you of every court hearing involving the child in your care, and you should attend. Judges often ask kinship caregivers directly how the child is doing, what the child needs, and whether the current arrangement is working.³

If you cannot attend, contact the caseworker or the child’s attorney before the hearing and send a written update. Follow up afterward for any new court orders that affect the child or your household. If you need your own attorney, the Texas Legal Services Center (800-622-2520) and the State Bar of Texas lawyer referral service (800-252-9690) are starting points. DFPS is required to work with the State Bar and community organizations to connect kinship caregivers with legal help for conservatorship, adoption, or other permanent status.¹²

Making the Arrangement Permanent

Kinship care often starts as a temporary placement during a CPS case, but many caregivers end up raising the child long-term. If reunification with the parents is not going to happen, two main paths lead to permanence: permanent managing conservatorship and adoption.

Permanent managing conservatorship (PMC) gives you legal authority over the child without fully terminating parental rights. It is the route most kinship caregivers take, and it is the route that qualifies you for PCA payments if you followed the verification and agreement sequence above. Adoption terminates parental rights and creates a new legal parent-child relationship, and may qualify you for separate adoption assistance benefits.

Either way, start the permanency conversation with your caseworker early. The PCA agreement in particular must be signed before the court grants PMC, and missing that window costs you monthly payments that could otherwise continue until the child turns 18. If your caseworker is not raising permanency, raise it yourself and ask for a legal aid referral. Texas law specifically requires DFPS to help kinship caregivers find those resources.¹²

If you already have guardianship or conservatorship, Texas also lets you designate a successor guardian through the court in the county where the child lives. For older caregivers, especially grandparents, addressing this early prevents a second disruption for a child who has already had one.

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 264
2
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Kinship Care
3
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Kinship Manual
4
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Child Protective Services Handbook – 6600 Case Planning With Relatives and Other Kinship Caregivers
5
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Letter to Kinship Caregivers
6
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines
7
Texas Health and Human Services. Texas Works Handbook A-2410 General Policy
8
Texas Health and Human Services. TANF Cash Help
9
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 264.851 – Definitions
10
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 264.854 – Maximum Payment
11
Internal Revenue Service. Child Tax Credit
12
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 264.756 – Assistance With Legal Resources