How To Screen Adoptive and Foster Parents

A Workbook for Professionals and Students

Social workers and other professions dealing with the placement of children in foster and adoptive care have an enormous responsibility as their decisions and recommendations have lifelong consequences both for the children concerned, as well as for the families in which the children are placed.

The book begins with some statistics on the outcomes of placements that should make practitioners very aware of the consequences of inadequate investigation, poor decision making with regard to placements and the follow up care of children.

Subsequent chapters contain very practical information, and suggestions about numerous aspects of the screening process for foster and adoptive care, inclusive of checklists, forms and practical exercises.

Although written in the context of the U.S. child care and protection system, the book has much to offer professional social workers working in other countries who are involved in assessing families for the placement and care of children.

Joan van Niekerk

Manager, Training and Advocacy, Childline South Africa

-----------------------------

As a lawyer who advises child serving agencies, I highly recommend this book. It is useful as a risk-management tool, as a guide for developing policies and procedures, and for evaluating the quality of existing agency practices. Its depth of detail is extraordinary and its organization makes it very easy to use. If I could I would make sure that every agency employee associated with the "screening process" had their own copy. This is a "must have" book and will likely set the practice standards for evaluating foster and adoptive parents.

Harvey Schweitzer

Schweitzer & Scherr, LLC