While adoption is a goal for welfare services when children cannot remain at home, adoption should not become a goal unless family reunification cannot occur. Recent initiatives take an oversimplified approach to agency standards, creating misunderstanding of programs. Adoption rates of agencies should be rewarded only after estimating pool of…

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…

Based on personal experience and a professional perspective, presents a theory about adult adoptees' reunions with their biological family. Identifies four stages of postreunion emotions: (1) paralysis; (2) eruption; (3) loss and grief; and (4) empowerment. Three factors that impact these stages are reunion success, reunion timing, and the fact…

Discusses cases of problematic, unethical international adoptions that came to the attention of the International Social Service in 1999. Considers cases of unqualified social workers hired to perform home evaluations and the resulting policy changes and implementation of global standards in intercountry adoptions. (JPB)

Presents evaluation findings of a 3-year Kentucky Adoptions Opportunities Project. Notes that a majority of children had one or both parents coping with multiple risk factors including mental illness, substance abuse, mental retardation, or family violence. Discusses major barriers to permanency, as well as policy and practice implications in the…

Examined the effectiveness of Baby Think It Over (BTIO), an infant simulation program that seeks to modify attitudes toward teen pregnancy and teen parenting. After experiencing BTIO, teens in the intervention group were more likely to accurately access their personal risk for an unplanned pregnancy than were teens in the comparison group. (Author)

The history of prevention science reflects a commitment to using scholarship to improve quality of life for children and families. The integration of prevention and promotion approaches facilitates the design and delivery of policies and programs that may be effective in enhancing healthy youth development in directions that advance civil society.…

This article highlights the importance of the introduction of gifted education. It discusses development of the concept of giftedness, and the theory practice relationship. Guidelines are presented regarding the process of formulating and applying policies pertaining to gifted education, including: look for assumptions, check for consistency, and…

Describes the efforts made by the Assembly of First Nations and others to restore Canadian Native children to their original tribe and culture. Discusses the "sixties scoop," during which the Canadian government intentionally took Aboriginal children out of their tribal communities and placed them with non-Native adoptive families, and…

Describes one Washington superintendent's efforts to have 90 percent of district students reading at or above grade level by the end of the second or third grade. Also describes seven attributes of effective reading programs: Leadership, clear focus, assessment, effective early intervention, quality materials, time, and a sense of team. (PKP)

This article discusses a theory that William Cruickshank had that children with brain injuries would benefit from learning in a classroom environment with plain-colored uniform furniture. The case illustrates that a development in human services that is viewed as a very major at one time can become quickly forgotten. (Contains references.) (CR)

This in-depth case study tracks the development of an urban school district's adoption of an educational technology plan over the course of a three-year time span. Highlights include technology planning, professional development training, technology supported curriculum development, technology implementation, and a cyclical model of intervention.…

Examined the effectiveness of a family-centered residential treatment model, Reasonable Efforts to Permanency through Adoption and Reunification Endeavors (REPARE), for achieving permanency outcomes for children. Found that the REPARE program achieved greater postdischarge stability for participants than the agency's standard residential treatment…

Every year at this time millions of Americans scramble to file or extend their income tax returns. This article explores some of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) sections that might affect (or relate to) the taxation of parents of disabled or special healthcare needs children. Many of these tax provisions also apply to parents with adult children…

Literacy practices are intimately connected to the economic, social, cultural, educational, and intellectual dimensions of our lives; and similarly so, even the most ordinary events of our daily lives involve literacy practices. We argue that if schools are going to prepare young people to participate in and contribute to a diverse, complex, and…