The youngest children in foster care suffer disproportionately. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) attempted to provide greater safeguards for children, which led courts to push for earlier reunifications between foster children and their biological families. Although no one wants young children to languish in the foster care system, early…

The process of determining permanent living arrangements for children residing in foster care is referred to as permanency planning. I provide a preliminary framework for art therapists working with foster children and their families during the permanency planning process, and identify clinical and ethical issues that have resulted from the…

President Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997, Public Law 105-89 105th Congress, 1st session on November 19, 1997. The ambitious new law aimed to reaffirm the focus on child safety in case decision making and to ensure that children did not languish and grow up in foster care but instead were connected with permanent…

In 2003, Idaho selected the Foster PRIDE/Adopt PRIDE preservice training and resource family development program. PRIDE participants (n=228) completed a pre and posttest survey based on the PRIDE training competencies in 2004-2005. Results indicate that PRIDE is an effective training and resource family development program. Providing and…

"Child Welfare Outcomes 2002-2005: Report to Congress" (Child Welfare Outcomes Report) is the seventh in a series of annual reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department). The reports are developed in accordance with section 479A of the Social Security Act (as amended by the Adoption and Safe Families Act…

Provisions of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 mandated shorter time frames for making permanency decisions and facilitating adoption. Yet for many children, foster care continued to be a significant portion of their life experiences. This project explored the potential permanency option of birthfamilies and extended kin for children who…

Despite a dark history marked by the eugenics movement, increasing numbers of people with disabilities are choosing to become parents. Recent research reveals that more than 4 million parents--6 percent of American mothers and fathers--are disabled. This number will unquestionably increase as more people with disabilities exercise a broader range…

Under federal outcome standards established by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, discharges to adoption are expected to occur within 24 months of the most recent removal from home for at least 32% of cases. In the research recounted here, adoption is treated as a process composed of two discrete steps: adoptive placement, and adoption…

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 includes provisions to deny reunification services under specified conditions and gives states latitude to develop any number of additional "aggravated circumstances" in which parents need not be offered services. California legislators have developed a relatively large number of…

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) addresses issues pertaining to prevention of placement in the child welfare system, as well as family reunification, the specific provisions of ASFA that relate to the termination of parental rights and adoption are perhaps most central to the law's overarching purpose. This paper analyzes adoptions from…

Noting that the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) requires substantial changes in family court and child welfare casework practice that must be implemented by the states, this report documents the current child welfare situation in New York City and identifies the resources needed by the courts to maintain childrens safety and move children…

In 1980, Congress passed the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act. The Act requires, in part, that states receiving federal monies under the Act make "reasonable efforts" to prevent the removal of children from their homes and, whenever possible, to reunify children placed in foster care with their families. In 1997, Congress passed…

Introduces special journal issue and highlights federal initiatives that have increased attention on adoption as a service for children in out-of-home care who cannot or will not be returned home. Notes several factors underpinning legislation, including growth in number of children who need adoption planning and services; and low rates of…

Efforts to improve the public welfare and child welfare system sparked an unprecedented amount of federal legislation in the 1990s, including the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA), the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 and Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996 (MEPA-IEP), and welfare reform. Such reforms allow an unprecedented degree…

Discusses issues for child welfare workers seeking to preserve the relationship between incarcerated parents and their children in the wake of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997; the Act advocates swift separation of parent and child and placement of children for adoption. Discusses this public policy, suggesting strategies for permanency…