Addressed to practitioners working with adoptive families, this book examines the question: How do professionals help children and families make transracial adoptions and foster care placements work? The book describes specific ways to ensure that children develop positive racial and cultural identities and how professionals can better serve…

Although the United States has seen a record influx of infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children into the foster care system in the past decade, there has not been an accompanying shift in policy or practice to attend to the developmental issues these younger children bring to child welfare. This textbook addresses the spectrum of child…

Noting that one of the biggest obstacles to reforming the foster care system has been the relative unavailability of research data from the field, this book provides an overview of the current state of foster care, describes the special needs of children living in foster care, and identifies policies and practices that address the foster care…

As child welfare professionals have become aware of the impact of prenatal substance exposure on children in the adoption process or who are available for adoption, there is a heightened need for understanding a range of issues connected with prenatal alcohol and drug exposure. This book addresses many of these issues, including the impact of…

Family members have traditionally provided kinship care for each other in times of crisis. Recently, such care has become part of the child welfare system. This edited volume presents several studies designed to identify current knowledge about kinship care as a child welfare service. Presented in five parts, the book summarizes the current state…