(WKYT) – Kentucky is now one of the first states in the country using new technology across the state’s child welfare system to help connect children in foster care with family members.
The Department of Community Based Services has partnered with Binti to launch a Family Finding and Engagement tool statewide. The online platform helps caseworkers identify kinship caregivers for children in the foster care system in real time.
Kelli Root, assistant director of the Division of Protection and Permanency at the Department of Community Based Services, said the goal is to connect children with kinship caregivers — family members or close family friends who can step in during a crisis.
“If we are involved in the child welfare space with a family due to needs or concerns, we want to be able to seek out and look for supportive members or supportive friends, family who can come around and surround that family, to really support them in a really difficult time that they may be facing,” Root said.
Research shows kinship placement leads to better outcomes for children, including by reducing trauma and providing more stability than traditional foster care.
Early results
Since launching statewide in Kentucky, Binti said the tool has helped staff identify more than 150,000 connections for children. The company said 93% of children with open searches in their portal have confirmed kin connections.
Root said staff is averaging about 17 Binti searches per day.
“All of our staff that are case carrying have access to the family finding module. So they are able to do real-time searches,” Root said.
Binti’s dashboard makes it easier to map complex family connections by combining all family-finding activities into one system, ensuring no potential caregiver is overlooked.
Root said the technology is just one tool staff use to place children with relative and fictive kin caregivers.
“We know that staff are doing family finding in other ways as well, you know, talking with families, talking with youth and young people about who are those important people in their life. And so this is just something that can be layered on top of that to find those initial connections for kids and families,” Root said.