Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
ABSTRACT
The child welfare system is overdue for substantial transformation. Families and communities of color have experienced the brunt of the failings and limitations present in current policy and practice. A transformed approach is needed that prioritizes maltreatment prevention, racial equity, and child and family well-being. The Family First Prevention Services Act is an important step in this effort, although its scope falls short of the significant changes that are needed to effectively serve children and families. Transformation requires intentional efforts to disentangle poverty…
This brief identifies the steps necessary to realize an integrated system of care, reviews two current approaches, and makes recommendations—including specifying policy reforms that would promote interagency collaboration, integration, service delivery, and improved outcomes for California’s children, both with and without disabilities. As a full commitment from the state administration is necessary to realize the proposed solutions at scale, this brief recommends the formation of a statewide interagency leadership council that has legitimacy, decision-making authority, and accountability…
Child Welfare Involvement and Youth Homelessness: The Need for Government Action
Research has shown that child welfare involvement and homelessness are closely linked, and that involvement in child protection is associated with an increased risk of homelessness (Dworsky & Courtney, 2009; Stewart et al., 2014; Wade & Dixon, 2006; Zlotnick et al., 2012). In the first pan-Canadian study on youth homelessness, Without a Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey (2016), 57.8% of youth reported some type of involvement with child protection services over…
In this brief article, the authors make their case for extending the age limit for young people to receive care in the foster care system, focusing on the UK and the US.
This policy brief comes from the Future of Children journal - a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution in the United States. The brief outlines the current state of the Child Welfare System in the United States, particularly federal funding to individual states’ child welfare systems. According to the brief, the US federal government provides states more money for foster care and out-of-home placement services than for preventive services and programs that could keep children out of foster care. The…
This comprehensive policy report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation summarizes what is known about kinship care in the United States, identifies the problems and issues these families face, and recommends how best to support caregivers as they step up to take responsibility for children in their extended families and communities. Extended family members and close family friends care for more than 2.7 million children in the United States, an increase of almost 18 percent over the past decade. The vast majority of these living…
Over the last decade, research in basic human development has revealed that institutional care - particularly when used to serve children under five - is not an appropriate form of alternative care, and instead of protecting children can put them at further risk of harm. Efforts have been made to transition international thinking away from the use of orphanage-based systems and toward providing family-based care. With this in mind, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) The Way Forward Project brought together a group of…
Released by a group of former United States foster youth as a comprehensive report on the system in which they were raised, this report details the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) Foster Youth Internship (FYI) recommendations on improving hot-button issues ranging from immigration, education, mentoring, psychotropic drugs, child abuse and government accountability. All of the topics reported are those that the youth felt motivated by personal experience to present. The report serves as a blueprint for Members of Congress interested in advancing foster…
The original terms of reference envisaged the preparation of Standards for the operation of Children’s Homes and the provision of foster care regulations. However the Initial Assessment carried out in April 2006 found that Guyana in common with many other Commonwealth countries was struggling to meet the present care and protection problems facing children because of outdated legislation and social work practice that was relying on residential care and had no history of community placements. The Initial Assessment recommended that improvements were needed to the social work systems and…