This report from the Women’s Refugee Commission describes the recent increase in migration of unaccompanied children from Central America to the United States and provides an overview of the situation of these children, including the factors that motivate their migration - primarily the violence they experience in their home countries.

This article focuses on a central problem of foster care, which is that it is often not developmentally informed.

This article describes the results of a meta-analytic review aimed at providing an estimate of the prevalence of physical and emotional neglect by integrating prevalence figures from the body of research reporting on neglect. It discusses and makes recommendations on the dearth of studies investigating the prevalence of child neglect, despite evidence of its severe consequences on millions of children, and a global prevalence estimated to be above 15%.

This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation assesses the practice of kinship care within the United States, reflecting upon the widespread use of this care practice, the complexities facing families involved in this form of care and the interventions and supports proven to assist in its success. While specific to the United States, discussions and recommendations can be assessed for application in other global settings.

The study is designed to identify whether effective caregiving mirrors strong parenting among typical parents or whether a set of additional skills is required to parent foster children responsively. Some of the principle features of quality caregiving for children are described particularly in the domains of family integration, relationships with biological parents, and support for children's special needs. 

This study used the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW, long term foster care general sample) data set to examine foster child and caregiver characteristics, and the caregiver–child relationship as a predictor of placement stability.

Knowledge transfer is highlighted in this paper as a conceptual framework to understand mandated referral to Early Intervention (EI) services for young children with open child welfare cases.

This paper presents new estimates of the average lifetime cost per child maltreatment (CM) victim in the United States and aggregate lifetime costs for all new cases of CM incurred in 2008 using an incidence-based approach. The authors find that the lifetime economic burden of CM is approximately $124 billion. Given this substantial economic burden, the authors argue that the benefits of prevention will likely outweigh the costs for effective programs.

Utilizing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, this paper from Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4 examines critical components and current characteristics of alternative care for children in low‐resource countries.

This article is based on interviews with 19 child care policy experts including policy advocates, researchers, and funders.