Allen MaryLee, Bissell Mary
Future Child. 2004 Winter;14(1):48-73.
Even though federal laws have had a major influence on foster care and child welfare policy for more than 40 years, additional reforms are needed to ensure safe and stable families for children in care. This article describes the complex array of policies that shape federal foster care and observes: A number of federal policies addressing issues such as housing, health care, welfare, social security benefits, taxes, and foster care reimbursement to the states, form the federal foster care policy framework. The Adoption and Safe Families Act significantly altered federal foster care policy by instituting key changes such as defining when it is reasonable to pursue family reunification, expediting timelines for making permanency decisions, recognizing kinship care as a permanency option, and providing incentives to the state for increasing the number of adoptions. Courts play a key and often overlooked role in achieving safety and permanency for children in foster care. Efforts to improve court performance have focused on increasing the responsiveness and capacity of courts. The article concludes with policy recommendations that are needed to improve the lives of children in foster care, such as increasing investments in children and families, redirecting funding incentives, addressing service gaps, and enhancing accountability.
尽管联邦法律在40多年来对寄养照料和儿童福利政策产生了重大影响，但仍需要进一步改革，以确保受照料儿童拥有安全稳定的家庭。本文描述了构成联邦寄养照料政策的一系列复杂政策，并指出：一些涉及住房、医疗保健、福利、社会保障福利、税收以及向各州提供寄养照料报销等问题的联邦政策，构成了联邦寄养照料政策框架。《收养与安全家庭法》通过实施关键变革，如界定何时追求家庭团聚是合理的、加快做出永久性安置决定的时间表、承认亲属照料为一种永久性安置选择，以及向各州提供增加收养数量的激励措施，显著改变了联邦寄养照料政策。法院在为寄养儿童实现安全和永久性安置方面发挥着关键且常被忽视的作用。改善法院工作表现的努力集中在提高法院的响应能力和办案能力上。文章最后提出了改善寄养儿童生活所需的政策建议，如增加对儿童和家庭的投资、重新调整资金激励措施、解决服务差距以及加强问责制。
