Discusses foster care with potential for adoption, describes eight legal categories identified as appropriate for foster care/adoption planning, and indicates aspects of cooperation between social work and legal personnel. Rights of biological parents, the importance of trust among parties concerned, and misuses and pitfalls of the foster…

Proposes a comprehensive definition of permanency planning and delineates its major components. (Author/RH)

Describes the principal features of a multisystems approach to family preservation that involves placement prevention and permanency planning. The approach is being taught to family preservation workers in Illinois. Discussion concerns the approach's theoretical premises, tasks, significant assessment areas, and ways of understanding the approach.…

From in-depth interviews with 15 public and volunteer agency caseworkers in states with and without statewide parental visiting policies, the elements that tend to determine or control the planned frequency of parental visiting of placed children are discussed. (BB)

Describes a caseload weighting system used by a voluntary child welfare agency which successfully increased caseworker-client contact and improved the quality of the delivery of child and family services. (BB)

Describes the roles of judges and social workers in Dutch child welfare. Briefly outlines training efforts designed to help social workers give their assessments greater structure, case-planning scope, and clarity. (BB)

Examined whether inclusive practice--involving parental involvement in foster children's (12- and 13-year-olds) lives while in traditional family foster care--was correlated with more frequent visiting and a greater likelihood of reunification. Found that mothers who visited their child and were involved in case reviews and child care activities…

Summarizes the objectives, conceptual model, results, and implications of a project called Foster Care Training: A Comprehensive Approach, in British Columbia, Canada, which was designed to illustrate ways in which a networking model can provide increased support and training for participating foster parents. (BB)

Tested the hypothesis that placement stability for foster children would improve if they received help in resolving separation conflicts with their biological families from a group treatment program under the leadership of the child's caseworker. Important lacks in agency practice were revealed. (BB)

Describes the evaluative model used to examine unsuccessful family reunification. Discusses findings regarding parental ambivalence and its effect on child placement reentry and implications of the findings for individual case assessment and for permanency services in general. (BB)

Explains characteristics and behaviors of Native American parents who react to child protection services with extreme aggressiveness, passivity, or avoidance. Discusses appropriate behaviors for social workers to use with such parents. (BG)