The Bleak Prospect for Public Child Welfare

Abstract

In this commentary I provide a rapid review of the twentieth‐century development of public child welfare, identifying blows that degraded the system from the 1960s on. I assess the steps that were taken to reform the system moderately (administrative restructuring, permanency planning, family preservation, case management) as well as the more radical reform proposals. All this leads to my prediction of a bleak prospect for public child welfare, although I note some possible hopeful developments and strategies.