What is Subsidized Guardianship?

Subsidized guardianship is a program that provides financial support to the guardian to offset the costs for caring for the child after permanency is achieved. Guardianship is a legal, long-term permanency option for children placed in out-of-home care by a child welfare agency.

Guardianship transfers the duty and authority to make important legal decisions for the child to another adult, like a relative or fictive kin, without severing the child’s legal relationship with their parents and other family members. Fictive kin are individuals with a significant emotional relationship with the child or the child’s family.

Subsidized guardianship is an option for families when:

• The child cannot safely return to their parents.
• The child would like to remain with their relative or fictive kin.
• Terminating parental rights and adoption is not in the child’s best interest.
• The child and their parents want continued contact and visitation with one another.
• Child welfare intervention can end when a relative or fictive kin obtains guardianship.