Offers different ideas on how to improve the foster care system from experts representing various disciplines. Among the key points are that any shift in policy or practice should ensure that no child or family will be worse off after intervention than they were before; practice and policy must be structured to provide incentives for multiple systems, including health care and education, to collaborate on behalf of children before, during, and after their involvement in foster care; children must be allowed to maintain the connections that have been significant in their lives; policy and practice must not only focus on the immediate health and safety of children in care, but also lay the foundation for healthy adult lives; policy needs to both account for and respect cultural differences; service delivery needs to move from the one-size-fits-all model to one that is developmentally sound and addresses individual needs; professional staffing needs to be increased, as does professional collaboration among child welfare advocates, judges, attorneys, and court-appointed special advocates; and investigations and psychosocial assessments need to be conducted in the language with which the family is most comfortable.
