Children in care of grandparents and non-grandparents: Which have greater odds of high academic performance?

•Nationally representative dataset of children living in nonparental care.•Compares academic performance of children in grandparental and nongrandparental care.•Grandparental care linked to greater likelihood of high academic performance.•Supports placement of children with grandparents. Much literature exists on social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes for children in care of their grandparents (i.e., grandfamilies), however little is known about academic performance among children living in grandfamilies when compared to other types of nonparental care. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using secondary data from the United States 2013 National Survey of Children in Nonparental Care. We compare the academic functioning in math and reading/writing of school-aged children (N = 809) cared for by grandparents with two other types of nongrandparental caregivers. Using logistic regression models, we found that compared to children in care of their grandparents, children in care of foster caregivers and nonrelatives in nonfoster settings were approximately 45% less likely to have high academic performance in math and reading/writing. With this research we add to the literature on academic performance of children in out of home placement, setting the stage to compare arrangement options.