In recent years, the child welfare field has devoted significant attention to siblings in foster care. Policymakers and practitioners have supported efforts to connect siblings via shared foster placements and visitation while researchers have focused on illuminating the empirical foundations of...

US public child welfare agencies have faced increasing pressure in the first decade of this century to demonstrate efficiency and accountability, even as the Great Recession increased pressures on millions of families and undermined human service funding. This paper reports on analyses of the...

This paper argues for a conceptual reorientation to research and practice that emphasizes the prominence of institutional and organizational factors in the lives of those who are involved in child welfare systems. Current child welfare reform efforts are premised on the idea that...

Human service agencies are encouraged to collaborate with other public and private agencies in providing services to children and families. However, they also often compete with these same partners for funding, qualified staff, and clientele. Although little is known about complex interagency...

Although child welfare practice at the frontline, organizational, and systemic levels is predicated on responsiveness to children and families, research has not determined why some child welfare agencies are more responsive to consumers than others. This study examines the influence of children...

Unmet needs for mental health care are common among caregivers involved in the child welfare system. Although child welfare caseworkers are well positioned to identify service needs and refer caregivers to treatment, little is known about the types of referral strategies used in practice, or...

Managed care and performance-based contracting in state child welfare systems have appeared as a consequence of the increased attention that federal and state policymakers are paying to system performance and service costs. This study reports findings from a longitudinal natural experiment that...

Performance contracting and managed care have recently migrated from the behavioral and physical health care sector into child welfare, and are being introduced under the premise that the financial incentives embedded in market-based models will motivate agencies and their workers to improve the...

Child welfare agencies and managers are devoting increasing effort to the improvement of organizational performance and accountability. While there has been a rise in evidence-supported interventions in child welfare, the diffusion and applicability of many of these evidence-based programs to...

The national studies represented in this symposium provide the field with greater understanding of the nature of the private sector's role in child welfare and the complex interrelationships among organizational characteristics, inter-organizational dynamics, and external influences. Research...