Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genui...
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.
