Thompson

“The practice of relatives or kin parenting children when their parents cannot is a time-honored tradition in most cultures.” Kinship Care: A Natural Bridge: A Report of the Child Welfare League of America (1994). Increasingly, our own society has turned to relatives for assistance in providing foster homes to children in need of them. 1 The issue here is under what circumstances foster parents who are related to their foster children can receive funds under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Foster Care Program (“AFDC-FC”).

AFDC-FC is a federal program administered by the States with federal financial participation. The program helps defray the cost of caring for needy foster children and thereby serves as an incentive for both kin and non-kin individuals and families to take in these children. Broadly speaking, eligibility for AFDC-FC funds depends on whether a child was eligible for AFDC benefits prior to being placed in foster care.

In Miller v. Youakim, 440 U.S. 125 , 99 S.Ct. 957 , 59 L.Edüd 194 (1979), the Supreme Court held that foster parents who were related to the foster children in their care were entitled to AFDC-FC benefits on the same basis as unrelated…