Examines the challenges facing children in the child welfare system, which are compounded by the troubling family circumstances that bring them into state care. As a consequence of exposure to such risk factors as poverty, maltreatment, and the foster care experience itself, these children face multiple threats to their healthy development, including poor physical health, attachment disorder, compromised brain functioning, inadequate social skills, and mental health difficulties. In this context, family stability is viewed as a continuum of care-giving practices that can facilitate healthy child development. The child welfare system, along with policymakers and practitioners, must ensure safe and stable family environments for foster children so that they can make developmental progress. A first step is to ensure that each foster child achieves placement in a permanent home. In addition, child welfare agencies need to implement high-quality programs that demonstrably promote positive family experiences for foster children. To this end, agencies must provide support and training to foster parents, establish a model of care to promote child well-being, focus on the positive behaviors of caregivers and children, and create consumer-oriented services that respond to the individual needs of children and families.
