The Adoption and Safe Families Act 20th Anniversary: Lessons Learned and Social Work’s Role in Leaning Forward

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was signed into law in 1997.  The overarching goal of this legislation was to ensure children did not languish in the child welfare system through the establishment of safety, permanency, well-being and accountability requirements and guidelines.  The language of ASFA was presumably written to balance the time sensitivity of the child welfare system’s decision-making process regarding permanency while at the same time keeping children safe in their homes.   

In the twenty years since the passage and implementation of ASFA, child welfare agencies have had to navigate the intent of the legislation with the exponential expansion - some would argue explosion - of research on issues that bring children and families into the child welfare system such as family structure, poverty, trauma, neuro-development, addictions, and mental health on maltreatment. Scholars and policy-makers alike acknowledge the inherent complexity of these issues, yet ASFA has not similarly evolved to address the known complexities of the multidimensional influences that serve as catalysts for maltreatment. Many children continue to remain languishing in the child welfare system and are not adequately protected from maltreatment and re-maltreatment.  Crafting ASFA to address and respond to this body of knowledge will translate this knowledge into a more secure child welfare environment. More importantly, without change children remain lagging in educational achievement and social-emotional development.

To determine the relevancy and practicality of ASFA in today’s world and hopefully have it evolve to move the needle forward on child welfare, we will have to lean forward and become more multidisciplinary and translational in our research agendas. This will require adaptations to business models within and between academic institutions. Cooperative and collaborative approaches will yield the most expedient and effective outcomes. Social work is in a unique position to be at the forefront of changing the trajectory for children and families in the child welfare system.  We have a great opportunity to pool our collective scientific knowledge , adapt ASFA and think in a broader context than “maltreatment” itself.  

This roundtable session will begin an overview of the intent of ASFA and where we are today with meeting the safety, permanency, and well-being standards set forth in the legislation. Following the overview, presenters will discuss the systemic contextual and risk factors that negatively impact  ASFA standards. Presenters will specifically focus on the intersect of poverty, trauma, neuro-development, developmental disabilities, behavioral health, support services and ASFA standards. The goal of the roundtable is to have a conversation that retrospectively reflects on the relevancy and reality of ASFA today given the knowledge base that we have about the biopsychosocial influences on child welfare and prospectively challenge scholars and emerging scholars to lean forward in their thinking about child welfare research, policy and practice.