Streamlining Child Welfare

Submitted by James Kenny, PhD on Wed, 03/11/2015 - 10:00

All children have the right to a permanent home within child time. Federal law has set appropriate deadlines for permanence. Yet the average time spent in foster care is approximately two years. The solution to prolonged foster care should be obvious. Either return the child to his birth home or find a new one with minimal delay. Time is not on the side of a growing child. Why the delay? Because the system is flawed. Foster care is currently structured in a way that makes it more likely a child will remain in long-term foster care rather than be reunified or adopted.

Successful business strategies can be adapted for the child welfare system. They include making the desired outcome clear (a permanent home), quality control, redirecting funding, bonuses for achieving permanence, and treating long-term foster care itself as a problem. Read the full article, Streamlining Child Welfare.