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Welcome to the National Family Preservation Network
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NFPN provides the vision, leadership, training, tools, and resources to assist policy makers and practitioners to build on a family's strengths and to preserve family bonds so children can be protected and nurtured at home. Please take a little time to read through our Web site. Below you will find some of our current articles and news stories, or watch our short introduction video. Thank you. |
Our mission is to serve as the primary national voice for the
preservation of families through Intensive Family Preservation and
Reunification Services (IFPS & IFRS). NFPN has developed a
comprehensive fatherhood initiative, because fathers are an integral
part of families. We believe that children deserve to remain safely with their families
when possible, and that all efforts must be made to reunite children
with their families, when it is safe to do so.
| New Research Supports Keeping Families Together |
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Two new research studies have addressed the critical issue of whether
abused and neglected children are better off left in their own homes or
placed in foster care. Both studies arrive at the same conclusion:
outcomes are better when maltreated children remain with their families.
Joseph Doyle at the MIT Sloan School of Management followed 15,000
abused/neglected children in Illinois from 1990–2002. Cases of severe
abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and drug abuse were excluded. The
focus was on cases where a decision could be made either way regarding
placement. Children placed in out-of-home care were more likely to
become juvenile delinquents and teen mothers and less likely to hold
jobs than the children who remained with their families. Another study in Minnesota looked at maltreated children before placement in foster care, during foster care, and after departure from foster care. Children placed in foster care showed an increase in behavioral problems immediately following placement in and departure from foster care. The increase in behavioral problems for the children in foster care was significantly greater than for maltreated children who remained with their parents. The key implication of these studies is obvious: abused and neglected children should remain with their parents whenever it is safe to do so. Keep in mind that the extreme cases, where there is no question that placement was necessary, were excluded from the large Illinois study. What's left were the cases on the margin and there is compelling evidence to support that these children, as well as children in similar situations, should remain with their families. The real issue is how to achieve this goal. To its credit, Illinois took to heart the overuse of foster care before the Doyle study was completed. Illinois has greatly reduced foster care placements in recent years while maintaining a good safety record. The decision to keep families together has to start at the top in every state with the governor, legislature, and child welfare system administrators. The state's laws, policies, and funding need to be aimed at keeping families together. Administrators and supervisors must share this goal and convey it to caseworkers. Out-of-home placement has a lifelong effect on a child; thus the placement decision should not be the sole responsibility of a caseworker. A team approach is needed for placement decisions as well as how to obtain resources for the family. An example of a model of excellence for the child welfare system is the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Agency in Pittsburgh, PA. This agency has reduced foster care placements by 25% over a nine-year period of time, reunifies 80% of families when placement has occurred, and has had no child deaths over a three-year period of time. All decisions regarding placement are made by a team that includes administrators and supervisors. A resource specialist is located in every office to assist caseworkers in connecting families to services. One of the unknowns with the studies mentioned above is the type of services that families received. Presumably the children in foster care and their families received services aimed at reunification or permanent placement as all states are mandated to provide foster care services and receive federal and state funds to do so. There is no indication of what type of services, if any, the children remaining with their families received. One of the most successful services in keeping families together is Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS). Wouldn't it be wonderful if every family included in the research studies had had access to IFPS—the outcomes for those families would have been even better! As part of its mission to serve as the primary national voice for the preservation of families, NFPN has initiatives in IFPS, family reunification, and fatherhood. NFPN is committed to assisting the child welfare system in keeping families together. For more information on NFPN's initiatives, visit: Preservation: http://www.nfpn.org/preservation/ Reunification: http://www.nfpn.org/reunification/ Fatherhood: http://www.nfpn.org/fatherhood/ NFPN has prepared a monograph on the Allegheny County child welfare system that can serve as a useful guide in setting up an effective system to keep families together. The monograph also includes 21 programs that have been found effective, or show promise of being effective, in the child welfare system. To download and read the Monograph on an Effective Child Welfare System, visit: http://www.nfpn.org/articles/monograph/ |
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