To Prevent Unnecessary Separation of Children and Families: Public Law 96-272—Policy and Practice

Abstract

Federal policy mandates the provision of public social services to families to prevent unnecessary separation of children. In practice, a national survey found variation in 34 states' implementation of this mandate. Five state-level variables were found to have statistically significant association with states' prevention effort in fiscal year 1985–86: disposition of the governor, the key legislator, and the child welfare director; citizen support; and proportion of children living below the state's poverty level. When all five variables were considered simultaneously in regression analysis, citizen support and proportion of children living below the state's poverty level emerged as significant predictors of prevention effort. These findings suggest practice strategies for social workers to influence social policies and programs.