The skills and abilities children develop in their earliest years lay the foundation for their future well-being. Likewise, early negative experiences can undermine them in later life. Parents play a central role in shaping their children's development, so helping them overcome their own sources of stress is a powerful way to improve how families…

School choice was intended to expand options and equity, and it holds promise for many students with unique needs. But it is clear that no choice system can be equitable until all students have real access to those choices. More than 400,000 youth are currently in foster care in the United States, many of whom experience significant obstacles in…

Several systemic factors contribute to the lack of stability and educational opportunities for students in foster care, including lack of transportation to the school of origin (or the schools they enrolled in when they first entered foster care), difficulty enrolling in new schools and transferring credits between school districts, gaps in…

The New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) instituted a neighborhood-based services system through the realignment of all foster care, preventive, and protective services along community district lines. ACS, with its community partners, also formed neighborhood-based networks to improve service coordination and collaboration…

The Child Welfare Information Service (CWIS), a computerized information system in New York City, provides data about the movement of children from natural parents through the foster care system to independence. (Author/SE)

The Special Child Welfare Advisory Panel of the Annie E. Casey Foundation studied front line practice and supervisory practice in the child welfare system of New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS). Data came from a number of sources, including field visits to program sites, visits to 15 contract agencies and 10 ACS sites.…

AGENCIES SELECTED BY THE CHILD WELFARE LEAGUE ARE PRESENTED. POLICIES, PRACTICES, CASE ILLUSTRATIONS, PURPOSES, AND HISTORY OF EACH AGENCY ARE DESCRIBED. THE CHILDREN'S BUREAU OF LOS ANGELES IS A MULTIFUNCTION AGENCY THAT INCLUDES FAMILY DAY CARE. SERVICE IS GIVEN TO FAMILIES AND CHILDREN OF ALL FAITHS AND RACES. THE HUDSON GUILD OF NEW YORK CITY…

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…

Examines the experience of Special Services for Children, a New York City public agency which has a specific department charged with carrying out agency planning on a formal, systematic, overall basis. (BR)

This monograph reviews factors that may unnecessarily plunge families into the child welfare system, noting barriers within the child welfare system itself that sometimes engulf Asian American families. Without adequate data on Asian Americans, understanding the issues and measuring trends are very difficult. Although small, the number of Asian…

Every year the New York City foster care system discharges approximately 650 young people between the ages of 18 and 21 to live on their own. This study was conducted to determine how the voluntary foster care agencies in New York City have interpreted state and city independent living regulations and implemented programming and services that lead…

A review of the current status of children who were placed in foster care in New York City as infants or as preschool children. Emphasizes the need to stress plans for permanency. A supplement on data from upstate New York is appended. (BD)

Describes the experiences of several families who are homeless in New York City, looking at what it is like for the children in these families, how the parents cope with trying to find work and a place to live, and how these families are treated by the system as they wait for various kinds of assistance. (SM)

In this report, the Child Welfare Project (CWP) of the Office of the Public Advocate examines New York City's child welfare social services infrastructure and the family court. It is based on child fatality reports for the year 2000 submitted to the Office of the Public Advocate by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services; child…

The author discusses the problems of teenage runaways: abuse which forces many to leave home, violence and sexual exploitation, lack of help from the child welfare bureaucracy. He illustrates with descriptions of several youngsters at his Covenant House crisis center, Under Twenty-One, in New York City. (SJL)