Educational outcomes of children from long-term foster care: Does foster parents’ educational attainment matter?

Placement history of foster children: a study of placement history and outcomes in long-term family foster care.

The files of 419 children in family foster care and kinship foster care were used in a retrospective longitudinal design study that examined their placement histories in child welfare. Significant associations were found between the number of placements on one hand, and the prevalence of attachment disorders, severity of behavioral problems, and breakdowns of new foster care placements on the o...

Health and mental health services for children in foster care: the central role of foster parents.

It is well documented that children enter foster care with special health and mental health needs and, while in care, those conditions are often exacerbated. However, less attention has been given to foster parents who have the most contact with these children. Results are presented from a national study on the developmental, health and mental health care needs of children in foster care that i...

Residential Education: An Emerging Resource for Improving Educational Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care?

Achieving better health care outcomes for children in foster care.

This article reviews the challenges health care systems face as they attempt to improve health care outcomes for children in foster care. It discusses several of the promising health care strategies occurring outside the perimeter of child welfare and identifies some of the key impasses in working alongside efforts in child welfare reform. The authors posit that the greatest impasse in establis...

Separation from siblings: Associations with placement adaptation and outcomes among adolescents in long-term foster care

Although practice guidelines support the placement of siblings in the same foster home whenever possible, sibling groups are frequently separated. Little empirical knowledge is available to understand why siblings are separated or how different sibling placement patterns are related to children’s placement adaptation and permanency outcomes. These questions were investigated using data from a s...