Lifting the Weight of the Wait

The following excerpt is from Guidelines for Public Policy and State Legislation Governing Permanence for Children, published in June 1999 as part of Adoption 2002; The President's Initiative on Adoption and Foster Care. Clinical Professor Donald N. Duquette, '75, and Mark Hardin, of the National Resource Center on Legal and Court Issues, are principal authors of the Guidelines, which were fashioned by a 74-member work group of administrators, lawyers, judges, advocates, and front-line workers in child welfare services. The purpose of the Guidelines is to help states review their own laws and develop statutes and policies that reflect the best practices in child welfare today. Duquette spent the academic year 1998-99 in Washington, D.C., working on the Guidelines as a legal consultant to the Children's Bureau.

A complete version on the Guidelines is available via the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families.