Early child care and education programs have the potential to play a supportive role in the lives of vulnerable children and families involved in the child welfare system. Child care subsidies can help low-income families to access these programs. The current study examines the use and stability...

While the U.S. Supreme Court has expressed the opinion that providing parental counsel to indigent parents is generally a sound practice, it has ruled that parents do not have an absolute constitutional right to counsel in termination of parental rights proceedings, and not all states provide a...

The present study aimed to confirm a relationship between placement change during a foster care episode and use of emergency mental health care, specifically crisis services and psychiatric hospitalization. Additionally, the study sought to differentiate between placement change's impact on...

This article explores the prevalence and characteristics of children with disabilities within the child welfare system using administrative data from the State of Minnesota. This study finds that more than a fifth (22%) of children with substantiated maltreatment are labeled in administrative...

This study examines the challenges faced by youth in foster care who are making the transition from high school to college. Forty-three high school and college students from across the state of Michigan who are or were in foster care spoke before panels of policymakers at two public forums....

The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics and risk factors of children who run away from foster care. By examining variables from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) dataset, this study compared two groups of foster children: those who run away...

US law has long recognized the need to help prepare foster youth for the transition to adulthood and states receive funds specifically intended to provide their foster youth with independent living services. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to whether foster youth in fact receive the...

Youth in the foster care system are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness than those in the general population. Within this system, youth with antisocial behavior (e.g., aggressive, oppositional) are overrepresented. The challenges youth with antisocial behavior present to foster care...

Foster care privatization is emerging as an increasingly popular policy option. One of the assumptions behind this movement towards privatization is a belief in the superiority of the private foster care agency. In an effort to assess this assumption, literature regarding public and private...

Infants and toddlers in foster care are at high risk yet face barriers in accessing mental health services. This study evaluated a model program designed to screen young foster children (n=432) and link them with infant mental health services. Regression analyses identified predictors of...