(a) The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF) and the Department of Health and Social Services shall establish and operate the Kinship Care Program that promotes the placement of children with relatives when a child needs out-of-home placement, when such placement is in the best interest of the child, and when the child is not in the custody or care of the State.

(b) The Kinship Care Program shall establish eligibility guidelines for kinship caregivers to qualify for kinship care benefits and services, including the following criteria:

(1) The caregiver must be related to the child by blood or marriage within the fifth degree of consanguinity;

(2) The caregiver must have guardianship of the child or actively pursue guardianship;

(3) The child must reside in the home of the caregiver;

(4) The caregiver must have income of no more than 200% of the federal poverty level; and

(5) The parent or parents of a child in the kinship care program may not reside in the home of the kinship caregiver.

(c) The Kinship Care Program shall partner with the Delaware Helpline to maintain a toll-free telephone line that kinship caregivers and other interested persons may call as a centralized source of information about services provided by the kinship care program and other related services and resources for relatives caring for children.

(d) The Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families, in cooperation with the Department of Health and Social Services, shall establish and administer an emergency fund for eligible kinship caregivers, who may receive a 1-time emergency financial subsidy, within the limits of available funding, to assist in purchasing clothes, furniture and other items necessary to prepare the household to accommodate the child or children.

(e) The Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families shall promulgate rules and regulations that are reasonable and necessary to establish or administer a kinship care program and that are consistent with the laws of the State and in harmony with the recommendations of the Kinship Care Taskforce Report of January, 2001.

73 Del. Laws, c. 270, § 2.