Reversing the Odds: Improving Outcomes for Babies in the Child Welfare System (Dicker)

Learn more about this book:

Table of Contents

Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition: A Parent-Completed, Child-Monitoring System

Ages & Stages Learning Activities

Assessment of Parenting Competency in Mothers with Mental Illness

Building a Home Within: Meeting the Emotional Needs of Chidlren and Youth in Foster Care

Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty: A Handbook for School and Mental Health Professionals

Early Intervention with Multi-Risk Families: An Integrative Approach

Help the most vulnerable young children in the child welfare system

Reversing the Odds
Improving Outcomes for Babies in the Child Welfare System
By Sheryl Dicker, J.D.

"Provides a compelling review of the multiple risks and adversities traversed by infants and young children in the child welfare system, an inspirational vision of the outcomes that can be achieved by improved policies and practices, and a roadmap for getting there." —Susan Chinitz, Psy.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine

"Eloquently expresses the need to raise awareness about the needs of young children in the child welfare system and provides an important message of prevention and early intervention." —Joy D. Osofsky, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

Babies and young children in the child welfare system have a high prevalence for physical, cognitive, and social-emotional delays—and often don't have access to the services and supports that could make all the difference. This is the book that will help professionals go beyond abuse prevention and ensure comprehensive healthy development of these vulnerable children from birth to age 3.

Demystifying the world of child welfare, this book shows early childhood practitioners how to successfully navigate this complex system and collaborate with a wide range of other professionals to meet young children's needs. Readers will

discover what new brain research says about the importance of effective early intervention and consistent caregiving in the earliest years of life
see how the current system works by tracing several children's journeys through child welfare and juvenile court
help fulfill the promise of new laws related to child welfare, health care, and early intervention and education
understand the juvenile court's powerful potential to influence young children's healthy development
help improve access to coordinated, consistent health care for young children in the child welfare system
work to make early intervention screening universal and services readily available to young children and families
make the most of early childhood education as a portal to school readiness, social-emotional development, and overall well-being

To help them make a real difference in the lives of young children, readers will get in-depth, real-life case examples that illustrate strong collaborations among the child welfare, legal, health care, early intervention, and early childhood education systems. They'll see how other professionals are working together to fully address children's needs, and they'll have detailed models they can use to forge their own effective partnerships with professionals from other systems.

Essential reading for a broad range of early childhood professionals and decision-makers, this book will help readers reverse the odds for young children in the child welfare system—and set the stage for lifelong physical, developmental and emotional health.

Reversing the Odds: Improving Outcomes for Babies in the Child Welfare System

ORDERING INFO
ISBN 978-1-55766-961-2
Paperback / 216 pages / 6 x 9 / 2009
$29.95
Stock# 69612

Table of Contents

About the Author
Foreword
Carol H. Rasco
Introduction

I. Sounding the Alarm: Background and Overview

1. Why the Odds Must Be Reversed for Young Children in the Child Welfare System

2. The History of Young Children in the Child Welfare System

3. A Child's Journey Through the Child Welfare System

II. The Promise of Research and the Law

4. Promising New Research

5. Powerful New Laws

III. Portals for Healthy Development: The Case Studies

6. Using the Courts as a Portal for Healthy Development: The New York Case Study

7. Using Health Care as a Portal for Healthy Development: The Arkansas Case Study

8. Using the Portal of Early Intervention for Healthy Development: The Philadelphia Case Study

9. Unlocking A New Portal for Healthy Development: Early Childhood Education

IV. Conclusion

10. Putting the Pieces Together: One Jurisdiction at One Point in Time

Epilogue

Postscript
References
Index