Search

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) mandates policies designed to increase the frequency and speed with which permanency is achieved for children in the child welfare system. ASFA's focus is on child safety, permanency, and well-being. The expectation that parents correct neglectful conditions within specified time frames places an increased ethical responsibility on child welfare staff. Carrying out this responsibility requires vigorous and innovative approaches to engaging and working with neglectful families. Drawing on a well-established conceptual framework for understanding the determinants of effective parenting, the authors derive the ENGAGE (Engagement, Needs assessment, Goal setting, Assessment of progress, Goal achievement, Ending work) model for achieving permanency within the policy structure. The model incorporates creative client engagement, assessment of family needs, mutual goal setting, the goal achievement process, termination, and aftercare.

Thirty-five caregivers of related children who were in the custody of the child welfare system were interviewed individually or in focus groups as the state child welfare system implemented new federal and state policies encouraging these caregivers to adopt or assume guardianship of the children in their care. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative methods. Issues of concern included emergency entrance into caregiving; the simultaneous satisfaction and burden of caregiving; obstacles to caregiving, adoption, or guardianship; complex changes in family dynamics following placement of children; sources of support; and caution regarding adoption or guardianship. The caregivers also offered recommendations for the child welfare system. Policy, practice, and research implications are discussed.

Findings from a study of 104 nonoffending parents and their sexually abused children suggest four areas in which nonoffending parents experience significant change or loss as a result of the disclosure of the sexual abuse of their children. The term reporting cost was coined to describe these changes and losses. The four types of reporting costs found are relational, financial, vocational, and residential. Nonoffending parents experienced an average of three major costs from the disclosure of intrafamilial sexual abuse.

The author analyzed demographic data on all parents who were subjects of indicated maltreatment reports in Illinois in 1988 (N = 23,764) and all parents in Illinois with children in out-of-home care on February 28, 1990 (N = 8,535). Findings were that adolescent parents were not overrepresented among maltreating parents or among parents of children in out-of-home care. These findings suggest that programs for adolescent parents should focus on issues other than potential maltreatment. The author suggests a focus on health care, nutrition, child support, child care, and enhanced educational and vocational opportunities for young women.