“Family preservation services are an appropriate strategy for enabling some children to safely remain with their families while a crisis is being diffused.”
—Michael Weber,
National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse News, March/April 1996

“If state agencies focus on preserving biological families, foster kids will continue to be shuffled around in the system.”
—
Minnesota Daily, June 24, 1998

On December 14, 1996, former president Bill Clinton instructed the secretary of health and human services to develop strategies to move children out of foster care and into permanent homes. He set a goal to at least double the number of adoptions among foster care children in six years. In response to Clinton’s instructions, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) introduced the child welfare initiative known as Adoption 2002. This initiative was founded on the belief that every child deserves a stable, safe, and nurturing...