The Child Welfare Challenge: Policy, Practice, and Research

Within a historical and contemporary context, this book examines major policy practice and research issues as they jointly shape child welfare practice and its future. In addition to describing the major problems facing the field, the book highlights service innovations that have been developed in recent years. The resulting picture is encouraging, especially if certain major program reforms I are implemented and agencies are able to concentrate resources in a focused manner.

The volume emphasizes families and children whose primary recourse to services has been through publicly funded child welfare agencies. The book considers historical areas of service—foster care and adoptions, in-home family-centered services, child-protective services, and residential services—where social work has an important role. Authors address the many fields of practice in which child and family services are provided or that involve substantial numbers of social work programs, such as services to adolescent parents, child mental health, education, and juvenile justice agencies.

This new edition will continue to serve as a fundamen-tal introduction for new practitioners, as well as summary of recent developments for experienced practitioners.

Peter J. Pecora is manager of research for the Casey Family Programs and professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington.

James K. Whittaker is Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work, University of Washington. He is a frequent consultant on child care training both in the Seattle area and nationally and is a consultant on research and training to the Child Development and Mental Retardation Center, University of Washington. He has served as director of the Social Welfare Program. He is also a founding member of the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation & Research on Family and Children’s Services.

Anthony N. Maluccio recently retired from Boston College where he was professor of social work. He is also professor emeritus of the University of Connecticut, where he taught social work for over twenty-five years. He conducted many research projects on topics such as adoption, permanency planning, and family foster care. His authored and co-authored books include Permanency Planning for Children: Concepts and Methods; Social Work Practice with Families and Children; and Evaluation in Child and Family Services: Comparative Client and Program Perspectives.

Richard P. Barth is dean of the School of Social Work and professor at the University of Maryland. He is the author or editor of numerous books in The Child Welfare Challenge and Adoption and Prenatal Drug Exposure.