Table of Contents

Introduction: Child Welfare is Not Brain Surgery; It's Much for Difficult


Part I: Tragedy and its Aftermath

Chapter 1: In an Ideal World

Chapter 2: In the Real World

Chapter 3: System Reform: Rounding up the Usual Suspects, Lawsuits, and Policy Changes


Part II: Centers of Gravity

Chapter 4: Who Is The Client?

Chapter 5: Portals, Gates, and Decisions

Chapter 6: Follow The Money: The Perverse Incentive of Federal Foster Care Funding

Chapter 7: Aging Out


Chapter 8: It Takes a Village...

About the Author

Richard J. Gelles, PhD, Former Dean (2001-2014) and Joanne T. & Raymond H. Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice; Co-Faculty Director, Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice, and Research; Founding Director, Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center on Family Violence.

Reviews

"Drawing on a depth of practical experience that few scholars bring to the table, Richard Gelles offers a vivid account of the dismal failures that have long plagued the American child welfare system and a keen analysis of how to fix it. An impassioned plea for fundamental reform based on a hard-nosed, data-driven blueprint for change, this is a must-read for everyone concerned about the protection and well-being of our most vulnerable children." - Neil
Gilbert, PhD, Chernin Professor of Social Welfare and Co-Director of the Center for Child and Youth Policy, University of California, Berkeley
"A thoughtful, insightful, and incisive dissection of the continuing failure of the Child Welfare System to protect our children. Like the boy who cried 'the emperor has no clothes,' Richard Gelles has pointed out that unless children are the central focus of Child Welfare, it will continue to fail them."
- Richard D. Krugman, MD, Distinguished Professor, University of Colorado School of Medicine
"Richard Gelles offers a compelling perspective on the need for child welfare reform. Characterizing much of child welfare casework as a series of consequential decisions, Gelles reframes the nature of child protection efforts with important implications for staff training. The foundation of his proposals - to put children at the center of the child welfare system - will be seen as highly controversial. But this book and the message it contains should be
digested and debated if we hope to improve child welfare services."
- Jill Duerr Berrick, PhD, MSW, Zellerbach Family Foundation Professor, University of California, Berkeley
"Finally, a hard-nosed, no-ideological-agenda dissection of our child protection system, by an expert with deep knowledge and sophisticated understanding of the politics and laws that shape the system. Richard Gelles reveals the weak links in the chain of responsibility for children's welfare that breaks apart far too often, and he advances new, effective, and politically realistic solutions. With this book, a new conversation begins."
- James G. Dwyer, PhD, JD, Arthur B. Hanson Professor of Law, William & Mary School of Law