North Dakota Kinship-ND Daily Allowance Rates for FRAME In-Home Cases

What the Kinship-ND Daily Allowance Is

The Kinship-ND daily allowance is the highest-value recurring payment available to kinship caregivers in North Dakota who are not licensed foster parents. It is restricted to one specific situation: an active child welfare in-home safety case logged in the state's FRAME system, with a caseworker supervising the placement.

This is not the same as the $800 lifetime expense reimbursement that any Kinship-ND enrollee can access. The daily allowance is a separate, caseworker-driven benefit with its own forms and eligibility path.

Current Daily Rates by Age

Daily allowance rates scale with the child's age:

For a 10-year-old in care for a full 30-day month, that works out to roughly $1,020 — a meaningful supplement when you are covering groceries, clothing, transportation to school, and medical appointments on a fixed income.

The $600/Month Childcare Supplement

On top of the daily rate, Kinship-ND provides licensed childcare assistance up to $600 per month ($20/day) for in-home cases. This is separate from the state's Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and does not require the caregiver to meet CCAP's work or training activity requirements.

Allowance funding is limited to six months per child. The childcare reimbursement is part of this allowance period and has a separate monthly maximum.

How the FRAME System Works

FRAME is the state's case management database for child welfare. Kinship-ND's guidance says the child is referred by a Human Service Zone from In-Home services. The agency caseworker assists the caregiver with the application and submits it to Kinship-ND.

The key forms:

• SFN 401: The Kinship-ND Allowance Application, completed by both the caseworker and caregiver.
• SFN 399: The Unlicensed Caregiver Home Study completed by the agency case manager.
• SFN 403: The Kinship-ND Allowance Verification form completed by the caseworker to verify placement and eligibility.

You do not submit SFN 401 or SFN 399 yourself. If your caseworker has not mentioned the daily allowance and you have an active in-home safety case, ask them directly whether it has been initiated.

Who Qualifies (and Who Does Not)

The daily allowance is only available when all of these are true:

1. The child was referred by a North Dakota Human Service Zone from In-Home services and accepted into Kinship-ND.
2. The case is active in FRAME as an in-home safety case.
3. You are not a licensed foster parent receiving foster care maintenance payments for this child.
4. You are a North Dakota resident caring for a child who is not your biological child, and the biological parents do not live in the household.

If you took in a relative's child informally — without any child welfare involvement — you do not qualify for the daily allowance. You can still apply for the $800 Kinship-ND expense reimbursement, child-only TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid through your Human Service Zone.

How This Fits With Other Benefits

The daily allowance does not replace other programs. A child receiving the Kinship-ND daily allowance can simultaneously receive:

• Child-only TANF (caregiver income excluded)
• Medicaid or Healthy Steps CHIP
• SNAP (household income counted)

The one hard exclusion: if you become a licensed foster parent and begin receiving foster care maintenance payments, the Kinship-ND daily allowance and the $800 expense reimbursement both stop for that child.

Getting the Full Picture

The daily allowance is one piece of a larger system. The North Dakota Kinship Financial Help Guide maps every program — the daily allowance, the $800 reimbursement, the $2,500 guardianship legal fund, TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, CCAP, and more — with the forms, document checklists, and a receipt tracker for reimbursement claims.

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