Keeping Kids Out of Foster Care

Vivek Sankaran from the University of Michigan and Martha Raimon from the Center for the Study of Social Policy have just published a new article with important ramifications for legal services programs, child protection agencies, and most importantly for the families involved with child protective services. The article describes how integrating legal services with child protective services can produce better outcomes for families. The article is an excellent summary of how these programs work, and includes newer research and suggestions on integrating the work with medical legal partnerships. It provides a promising model for how agencies that provide broad based civil legal services for the poor can make an important difference for families.

_{Richard Cozzola is with Children and Families Practice Group in Chicago, Illinois.}

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