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The paper articulates three models of collaboration between child protection services and law enforcement agencies on investigations of child maltreatment, and examines the relative impact of each model on child removals and short-term foster care placements. An extensive review of the research literature is used to derive lessons for jurisdictions using the different models. Promising strategies from several jurisdictions are described as they relate to collaborative investigations, child removal and short-term placements. Finally, we provide recommendations to improve child protection investigations and reduce the use of short-term foster care placements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Child welfare has long been a concern for American Indians, so much so that Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978. The ICWA was intended to address was the large number of children placed out of home as a result of abuse and/or neglect, and the corresponding lack of tribal and community input regarding their removal and placement. This paper focuses on one group of American Indian people, the Lakota, whose children are overrepresented in the child welfare system. As a promising practice, shared decision-making will be offered as a culturally appropriate model to build dialogue and cooperation between social workers and their Lakota clients. Shared decision-making holds promise to help address the important social justice issues identified by Congress and by the Lakota people in the 1970s and which remain largely unresolved some 40 years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 was developed with the goal of increasing the safety, permanency, and well‐being of children involved in U.S. child welfare systems. A growing number of unaccompanied immigrant children (UC) are being served in long‐term foster care (LTFC) under the auspices of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). UC are placed in care because an appropriate sponsor is not available pending immigration hearings. Yet, the research literature has been silent on how outcomes for UC can be articulated and operationalized to guide policy and practice. This study fills this gap by exploring how safety, permanency and well‐being may be defined for this population. Seventy‐nine service providers working unaccompanied children in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States participated in 22 focus groups. Findings indicated that safety, permanency, and well‐being are fundamental for UC but include different aspects, such as emotional safety in addition to physical safety, the nuances of legal permanency and placement stability in addition to family reunification, and cultural integration as a factor of well‐being and mental health. This study's results can inform organizational data collection procedures, culturally relevant assessments, and a deeper understanding of the experiences of UC in foster care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]