This dissertation examined disparities in initial placements and Length of Stay in Custody of children in North Carolina experiencing child maltreatment. This research examined how the Length of Stay in Custody and type of initial placement was associated with the age, race, and gender of children who had been removed from the care of their…

This article focuses on the information that children need to be given when they are moving to a fostering placement. Generally, children are not consulted or informed prior to the foster decisions being made, nor when they arrive at the placement. Therefore, they do not usually know their foster care situation and the changes it implies for their…

Much as one would like to be able to base permanency decisions on the solid ground of empirical findings and objective knowledge, the nature of child abuse precludes this possibility. In the absence of any unitary knowledge base, it is important to know what knowledge social workers use to inform their permanency decisions. This article presents…

Summary: More than 50% of children who depart foster care will experience a permanency placement after being involved in the child welfare system. The struggles faced by children and families during the transition into the home and community setting following foster care are well-known and often result in child welfare reentry. Presently, little…

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) contracted with three child welfare providers that operate transitional living (TLP) or independent living (ILO) programs (or both) to implement LifeSet, an intensive case management program developed by Youth Villages, for youth in care who are 17.5 to 21 years old. LifeSet helps…

Background: Out of home placement (OOHP) of welfare involved children is a critical problem associated with child abuse and neglect and household dysfunction. Few studies have also implicated greater instability in OOHP with more negative outcomes. However, several gaps remain. Objectives: Objectives were twofold. To identify combinations of…

This brief describes the relationship between placement stability and youth engagement in the Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP), a program developed and implemented by the Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA) for 14- to 20-year-olds in foster care who have multiple risk factors for experiencing homelessness. The authors used program data…

About one-fifth of children involved in investigations for abuse or neglect are placed in foster care. Although some return to their families quickly, others may remain in foster care for years without permanent family relationships. In this article, Mark Testa, Kristen Woodruff, Roseana Bess, Jerry Milner, and Maria Woolverton examine the…

Purpose: This study examines foster care reentry after adoption, in Illinois and New Jersey. The provision of services and supports to adoptive families have garnered recent attention due to concern about the long-term stability of adoptive homes. Method: This study used administrative data to examine the pre-adoption characteristics associated…

Boarding schools are the common 'out-of-home' placements for adolescents, due to various historical, religiously orthodox, and traditional reasons and due to dysfunction within families. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between a free versus an enforced decision to enroll in a boarding school in terms of personal…

Through art and storytelling, Indigenous youth highlight continuity between recent experiences in child welfare systems and Canada's residential schools of the twentieth century. Between mid-2014 and mid-2015, twenty Indigenous youth collaborators (eighteen to twenty-nine years) in Calgary, Canada critiqued how child welfare systems become…

This study provides an initial classification of information on the social and geographic distribution of children's residential care institutions in Russia, and it characterizes the relationship between this information and the level of criminalization and victimization of minors. We provide data on the number of such residential care facilities…

This report summarizes the results to date of the ongoing Colorado Study of Students in Foster Care. The Colorado Study is a longitudinal study of educational outcomes of students in foster care and factors that affect these outcomes, which is intended to inform systems-level reform. The research is conducted in partnership with the Colorado…

Lack of progress for improving the lives of kids is unacceptable. All children need stability and a path to opportunity. This is true for nearly half of California's children who live in low-income families, where caregivers struggle to afford the quality support and services they need for their kids. This is also true for the approximately…

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…