information for practice

On September 12-13, 2006, the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services brought together leading child welfare researchers from across the United States to lend their collective expertise to the urgent need of achieving family permanence for older children and youth in foster care. The Research Roundtable served as a forum for a rich dialogue on the successes and challenges in achieving family permanence for this population. Through formal presentations, responses, and open discussion, the invited researchers and other guests identifi ed critical issues and explored emerging policy and practice opportunities. Together they developed recommendations for policymakers, child welfare service providers, and the child-welfare research community to increase the likelihood that each youth in foster care will leave the system with an enduring family relationship that he or she can count on for life. This report addresses the results of the Research Roundtable as the discussion, and recommendations focused on the policy and advocacy responses that are needed to promote family permanence. The report is organized into three sections that look at the same key themes from different perspectives.