Child Welfare Reform and the Political Process

Abstract

The passage in 1980 of Public Law 96-272, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act, concluded more than a decade of advocacy on behalf of children in foster care. This article analyzes a number of forces prompting child welfare reform and describes the various activities and actors involved in the complex policy process that resulted in passage of the federal statute. The article is organized around five of the major steps generally associated with finding political solutions to social needs: the definition and publicizing of a problem, its placement on the political agenda, the articulation of a policy goal, and the design of a policy vehicle or program.