Kentucky Is Ending a Kinship-Care Program That Helped Children Stay Connected to Family

A state funding decision will close Kindred Roots on June 30, affecting kinship families in four Central Kentucky counties.

Jun 06, 2026

Kentucky’s child-welfare contracts are administered through the state government, but the effects of funding decisions are felt by local DCBS offices, courts, caregivers, and families. RXUYDC / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The contract decision behind the closure

Kindred Roots, a Lexington-based kinship-care and reunification program operated by The Bair Foundation, is scheduled to close on June 30, 2026. The program serves families in Fayette, Clark, Madison, and Scott counties, working with children placed with relatives or fictive kin, biological parents, and caregivers trying to keep family relationships intact while a child-welfare case proceeds.

The immediate trigger is state funding. WKYT reported that Kindred Roots will end free services for 278 families after state funding for the program was eliminated. Kentucky Lantern reported that Cabinet officials met with the program in late May and said the contract would be canceled.

The public needs to see the contract, the cancellation or nonrenewal letter, the funding source, and the transition plan. At this point, the documented public fact is that a state-funded child-welfare service serving four central Kentucky counties is ending, and the families using it will have to be moved somewhere else or lose part of the support they had.

Kindred Roots provided services that are difficult to replace quickly: supervised visitation, parenting education, court advocacy, case management, case consultation, transportation, and resource coordination. The program’s own public description says it focuses on children in kinship or fictive kin care alongside birth parents and kinship caregivers.

Kindred Roots provided services tied directly to child-welfare cases. Supervised visitation allowed a parent and child to see each other in a controlled setting while a case was pending. Transportation could determine whether a visit happened at all. Court advocacy and case management helped a grandmother, aunt, cousin, or trusted family friend understand what a judge, DCBS worker, or case plan required.

What Kentucky funded, and what it stopped funding

The institutions involved are the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Department for Community Based Services, and The Bair Foundation, which operates Kindred Roots. The program also grew out of a partnership between DCBS and the University of Kentucky, according to materials from CHFS and The Bair Foundation.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services is the state cabinet responsible for child welfare. Inside CHFS, DCBS administers child protection, foster care, adoption, family services, and supports for children placed with relatives or fictive kin. DCBS Commissioner Lesa Dennis leads the department, and CHFS Secretary Steven J. Stack leads the cabinet.

The funding decision is connected to the state budget. The General Assembly passed House Bill 500, the executive branch budget for the 2026-2028 biennium. HB 500 became Acts Chapter 168 after it was delivered to the Secretary of State on April 14, 2026.

The budget includes funding for Community-Based Services and out-of-home care. The chaptered budget appropriates funds for Community-Based Services and includes $22 million each fiscal year from the Out of Home Care Replacement Fund “to maintain existing support for foster care and kinship care programs” and support specialized services for children with exceptional needs.

That budget language creates the central accountability question. If the budget maintained some foster-care and kinship-care support, who decided that Kindred Roots would no longer receive funding? Was the program cut by name, removed through a contract decision, affected by a funding-source shift, or excluded from a renewed service plan?

The answer should not require guesswork.

CHFS and DCBS can release the contract, the notice, the reason for the funding decision, and the written plan for the 278 families WKYT reported are facing transition.

A program CHFS once described as part of its service array

Kinship care refers to children being cared for by relatives or trusted adults, often called fictive kin, when they cannot safely remain with a parent. In Kentucky, those placements may involve DCBS, District Court, family court proceedings, custody orders, foster-care licensing rules, case plans, and state support programs.

Kentucky law already recognizes relative and fictive kin placements. In 2024, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 151, which changed parts of the kinship-care framework. The law allowed children to name possible relatives or fictive-kin caregivers to the District Court and created a path for some relatives or fictive-kin caregivers to apply to become child-specific foster home providers.

That law became part of a larger fight over state funding. Gov. Andy Beshear signed SB 151 but warned that lawmakers had not provided enough money to carry it out. State Auditor Allison Ball sued the Beshear administration in 2025 over the delayed implementation and access to records. Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate dismissed the lawsuit in September 2025, finding that the dispute was not ready for court resolution in the manner in which Ball had brought it.

The Kindred Roots closure now enters that same child-welfare environment. Kentucky has been debating how much support relatives and fictive kin should receive, who qualifies for foster-care payments, and whether the state has funded the promises written into law. So, a local program serving kinship families is now closing following a state funding decision.

CHFS’s own materials previously described Kindred Roots favorably. In its 2023 report on relative and fictive kin placements, CHFS said The Bair Foundation had partnered with the UK and DCBS to address the needs of kinship caregivers, children, and biological parents through reunification and support services. That report said Kindred Roots had served 107 children, with 91 percent completing the program and a 98 percent success rate in reunification or permanency with no placement moves among children who completed it.

Those numbers alone are not enough to prove the program should have been renewed. They do show that Kentucky’s own child-welfare agency had documented Kindred Roots as part of its service array and had reported positive outcomes.

Four counties, 278 families, and one unanswered transition plan

A family in Fayette, Clark, Madison, or Scott County that relied on Kindred Roots for supervised visitation, transportation, case management, or parenting support will need another provider, another DCBS arrangement, or a different case plan.

For children, the change may affect consistency. Children in kinship care often rely on predictable visits, familiar workers, and stable routines while adults sort through court orders, case plans, housing, treatment, employment, or custody questions. Removing a provider can interrupt those supports even when the state intends to transition families elsewhere.

For relatives and fictive kin caregivers, the closure can add administrative work. A caregiver may need to coordinate with DCBS, transport children to visits, track court requirements, communicate with a parent, and manage school, health care, and daily care. A program that combines several forms of support in one place can reduce that burden.

For DCBS workers, the closure can create workload.

If a contractor handled visitation coordination, transportation support, case consultation, and court advocacy, local DCBS offices or other vendors must cover those functions or decide which services families will receive. That is where a Frankfort budget decision becomes a county-level staffing and service problem.

For courts, the closure can affect reunification and permanency timelines. Judges and attorneys rely on service availability when assessing whether parents are following case plans and whether a child can safely return home or achieve permanency with a relative. If a service disappears, the court still has to make decisions about custody, visitation, and permanency.

The state has a duty to explain how the transition will work before June 30. The affected families should not have to learn through scattered calls, delayed referrals, or sudden changes in visits.

Share this with someone watching child welfare or state budget decisions

When a state contract ends, local offices inherit the problem

This story belongs in Kentucky public life because CHFS and DCBS control the child-welfare contracts, the General Assembly controls appropriations, and local families experience the service loss. The decision affects specific counties and a specific service provider, but the governance question reaches the entire state child-welfare program.

Kentucky has an estimated 55,000 children in kinship care, according to reporting on the SB 151 dispute. CHFS’s 2024 Annual Progress and Services Report said that, as of August 1, 2023, 1,150 children had been removed from their home of origin and placed with relatives or fictive kin. The same report said 819 children achieved permanency in 2023, with many reaching permanency through relatives or fictive kin.

Those statewide numbers help explain the scale.

Kinship care is not a narrow program for a few families in Lexington.

It is a major part of how Kentucky handles child abuse, neglect, removal, custody, foster care, and permanency.

The affected counties matter too. Fayette County has a large court and service network. Madison, Clark, and Scott counties have their own DCBS offices, local providers, courts, schools, and family networks. When a specialized service closes, each county has to work with the options available nearby.

The state also has an information problem. Public reporting has identified the closure, the counties served, the number of families facing transition, and the basic reason given: state funding. The public still does not have the contract file, the cancellation notice, the cost comparison, the alternative-service plan, or a clear explanation of who made the final decision.

That gap should concern anyone who cares about public services. Kentucky can fund a program, praise a program in state reports, build it into a local service network, and then end the funding. When that happens, the public should be able to trace the decision from the budget line to the contract file to the local transition plan.

Who can release the documents now?

The Kentucky General Assembly holds the power of appropriation. Lawmakers decide how much money goes into CHFS, DCBS, out-of-home care, kinship care, foster care, and related services. The legislature can also ask CHFS to explain how it used funds already appropriated in HB 500.

CHFS Secretary Steven J. Stack holds cabinet-level authority over the agency responsible for the contract. His office can direct CHFS to release a plain-language explanation, provide the contract documents, and explain how the state will protect the families affected by the closure.

DCBS Commissioner Lesa Dennis holds operational authority over the department that works with child welfare staff, contractors, foster care, adoption, and kinship care services. DCBS can identify which local offices or vendors will take over each function Kindred Roots performed.

The Bair Foundation holds program records and direct knowledge about the families served, the service model, staffing, outcomes, and transition risks. The Bair Foundation can explain which services families have, which can be replaced, and which may disappear.

Family courts and District Courts will continue making case-level decisions involving children, parents, relatives, and fictive kin. Judges cannot restore a state contract, but they can ask whether a family still has access to visitation, transportation, parenting education, or case-management support required by a case plan.

Local DCBS offices in Fayette, Clark, Madison, and Scott counties will be central to whatever happens next. They will be the offices families contact when services change, and they will be the offices most likely to handle the administrative burden if no equivalent provider replaces Kindred Roots.

What you can ask before June 30

Start with CHFS and DCBS. Ask for the Kindred Roots contract, the cancellation or nonrenewal letter, the amount of state funding involved, the funding source, and the transition plan for the 278 families reported by WKYT.

Ask whether every family will receive a written transition notice before June 30. Ask which provider or DCBS office will handle supervised visitation, transportation, parenting education, case management, and court advocacy after the closure.

Ask legislators how HB 500 affected this program. The budget included funding for Community-Based Services and out-of-home care, so lawmakers can ask CHFS to determine whether Kindred Roots was cut by budget language, cabinet discretion, a procurement decision, or a service redesign.

Track upcoming legislative committee meetings. The relevant committees include the Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children and the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue. Either committee can request testimony from CHFS, DCBS, The Bair Foundation, kinship caregivers, and family-court professionals.

Request records. A focused open-records request to CHFS could seek the contract, amendments, notices of termination or nonrenewal, scoring documents, budget memos, emails with The Bair Foundation regarding closure, and any written transition plan for current clients.

Document local effects. Kinship caregivers, attorneys, social workers, teachers, and service providers in Fayette, Clark, Madison, and Scott counties can track whether visits are delayed, transportation disappears, court dates are affected, or families are referred to services that are full or unavailable.

The June 30 closure date gives Kentucky a narrow window.

CHFS and DCBS can still explain the transition before families reach the end of the month without clear answers.

Dispatches from Kentucky

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?