Build the network before the child needs it.
Classroom to Kinship helps schools build a network of staff who are willing to be considered as kinship caregivers for children they already know and trust.
Voluntary. Child-specific. Never a guarantee of approval or placement.
Children already know adults who may someday become family.
Every day, school professionals build meaningful relationships with children. Classroom to Kinship makes sure those adults know they may be able to step forward if a child they already know enters foster care.
“They are not signing up for strangers. They are raising their hands for children who already know them.”
A child can be surrounded by people who know them and still be placed with a stranger.
Child welfare appropriately searches for relatives and kin. But trusted school relationships can remain invisible unless a system is intentionally designed to recognize them.
A standing network. A child-specific decision.
Build the list
School staff voluntarily express interest before a child needs placement.
Prepare in advance
Interested Network members complete as much allowable preparation as possible in advance.
Make the connection
When a child enters care, the school identifies whether someone in the Network already has a meaningful relationship with that child.
The Network is standing. Every placement decision remains child-specific.
Children spend years building relationships there.
Known
School staff know the child’s routines, strengths, personality, communication style, and needs.
Trusted
Children may already experience these adults as safe, dependable, and emotionally significant.
Connected
A school-connected caregiver may help preserve education, friendships, activities, siblings, and community.
All existing child welfare safeguards remain in place.
Classroom to Kinship does not replace relatives, family finding, background checks, home assessment, safety review, or child-specific placement decisions.
It creates a way to identify willing adults who may otherwise remain invisible to the system.
What the model is
- A proactive school-based kinship network
- A child-specific placement pathway
- An extension of family finding
- A bridge between schools and child welfare
What the model is not
- General teacher recruitment
- A foster-home list for unknown children
- Automatic approval
- A replacement for relatives or family finding
- A request for schools to investigate families
- A lower safety standard for school employees
Test the operating model, not just the idea.
A national pilot should test whether schools can build and maintain a voluntary Network, whether the Network reveals child-specific kinship possibilities, and how confidentiality and activation protocols work in practice.
Bring Classroom to Kinship to Your State or CommunityLet’s Build the Network Before the Child Needs It
Whether you lead a school district, a child welfare agency, a foundation, or a national organization, we would welcome a conversation about bringing Classroom to Kinship to your state or community.
Who should reach out
- State and local child welfare leaders
- School district and education leaders
- Foundations and funders
- Research and evaluation partners
- National organizations and policy partners
What happens next
A member of our team will respond to discuss the model, the national pilot, and how partnership could work in your jurisdiction.