The Child Welfare Challenge: Policy, Practice, and Research

Using both historical and contemporary contexts, The Child Welfare Challenge examines major policy practice and research issues as they jointly shape child welfare practice and its future. This text focuses on families and children whose primary recourse to services has been through publicly funded child welfare agencies, and considers historical areas of service―foster care and adoptions, in-home family-centered services, child-protective services, and residential treatment services―where social work has an important role.

This fourth edition features new content on child maltreatment and prevention that is informed by key conceptual frameworks informed by brain science, public health, and other research. This edition uses cross-sector data and more sophisticated predictive and other analytical processes to enhance planning and practice design. The authors have streamlined content on child protective services (CPS) to allow for new chapters on juvenile justice/cross-over youth, and international innovations, as well as more content on biology and brain science. The fourth edition includes a glossary of terms as well as instructor and student resource papers available online.

Peter J. Pecora is Professor of Social Work at the University of Washington and Managing Director of Research Services for Casey Family Programs.

James K. Whittaker is the Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington.

Richard P. Barth is Dean of the School of Social Work and Professor of Social Work at the University of Maryland.

Sharon Borja is Assistant Professor of Social Work at the Graduate College of Social Work at The University of Houston.

William Vesneski is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Seattle University.