From the Editor: Real Scholarship on Real-World Issues for America's Children, Youth, and Families

In an era of allegations about fake news, unsubstantiated tweets, and accusations that long-standing social programs are ineffective, our country and our profession needs to focus even harder on real-world, rigorous approaches to examine and to be responsive to the critical issues effecting children, youth, and families in the child welfare system. This volume of Child Welfare focuses on a range of these issues: housing for youth in foster care; adoption policy and well-being; issues of sexual abuse in rural communities; psychological maltreatment; and the effects of psychopharmacology on pregnant teens.

In our first article, authors Dworsky, Dion, Kleinman, and Kauff study how communities are using the Family Unification Program (FUP) to address the housing needs of former foster youth. After analyzing data collected from 91 public housing agencies with FUPs that serve youth and from 70 of their partner public child welfare agencies, findings indicate that implementation of the FUP with this population varies significantly across communities.

Adoption policy and the well-being of adopted...