Welfare Reform on the Web (March 2001): Child Welfare - Overseas

THE ADOPTION AND SAFE FAMILIES ACT: CREATING A FALSE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN PARENTS' AND CHILDRENS' RIGHTS

T.J. Stein

Families in Society, vol.81, 2000, p.586-592

The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act 1980 aimed to prevent the removal of children from their homes, and, for those whose safety required removal, to facilitate family reunification. In 1997, the US Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act. This reflected a shift in philosophy away from the family-preservation/family reunification theme that had been prevalent in child welfare from 1980 to focus on achieving permanency through adoption.

SECURING THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN: POLICIES PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

E.D. Hutchison and L.W. Charlesworth

Families in Society, vol.81, 2000, p.576-585

Paper places the contemporary US child welfare system, and its failures, in a socio-cultural context from an international perspective. The social construction of childhood is analysed and the ways that the construction marks children as a class in need of protection are discussed. Recent demographic changes that affect the welfare of children are presented. Policies to secure the welfare of children are placed first in an historical context, and then analysed as they currently exist in late industrial societies with multiple sites of authority.