Experiences of African American Kinship Caregivers Navigating Mandated Child Welfare Training Requirements In California.

Background: The United States child welfare system increasingly relies on kinship care. Research consistently indicates that kinship care promotes superior outcomes in placement stability, cultural continuity, and emotional well-being. Despite these benefits, African American children remain significantly overrepresented in California’s child welfare system, with an in-care rate of over 20 per 1,000, nearly four times the state average. Concurrently, California’s Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) and the Resource Family Approval (RFA) process have institutionalized standardized training mandates that kinship caregivers must navigate to maintain placements. While existing literature extensively documents child-level outcomes and system-level performance, there remains a critical gap in understanding the subjective, lived experiences of African American kinship caregivers as they interact with these educational requirements.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the lived experiences of African American kinship caregivers in California as they navigate mandated child welfare training requirements. Grounded in an ecological systems perspective, the study seeks to illuminate how these caregivers interpret, describe, and make sense of training mandates within the context of their daily lives and cultural traditions of informal caregiving.

Methodology: This study employs a tailored phenomenological research design to capture the essence of the participants' experiences. Purposeful and snowball sampling will be used to recruit approximately twelve (12) African American kinship caregivers who have recently completed or are currently navigating the RFA training process in California. Data collection will consist of semi-structured virtual interviews designed to elicit rich descriptions of the participants' experiences. The researchers, both of whom possess extensive professional backgrounds within the child welfare system, will utilize reflexive journaling and bracketing to mitigate personal bias and ensure findings remain grounded in the participants' narratives.

Analysis: Data will be analyzed using inductive thematic analysis facilitated by ATLAS (ti) software. The analytic process will follow established qualitative protocols, including verbatim transcription, open and focused coding, and the clustering of significant statements into essential themes. To ensure rigor and trustworthiness, the study incorporates strategies for credibility, dependability, and confirmability, including analyst triangulation and the use of raw participant quotes to support thematic development.

Significance: Findings from this research aim to bridge the gap between macro-level policy intent and micro-level caregiver reality. By centering the voices of a disproportionately impacted but underrepresented population, this study provides critical insights into the logistical, systemic, and cultural barriers inherent in standardized training mandates. The results may inform social work practice, provide a framework for more culturally responsive training models, and influence policy adjustments aimed at reducing systemic inequities and strengthening the sustainability of kinship placements for African American families in California and the United States in general.

Note: This study is currently in the proposal phase and pending IRB approval. Findings are anticipated by November 2025, prior to the conference. The research team intends to disseminate results through the conference presentation.

Keywords: African American, Ecological systems, Kinship Care, Child Welfare, Phenomenology, Training Requirements, Resource Family Approval.