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This chapter focuses on US child welfare policy - specifically, federal governmental policies as well as programs that guide formalized responses to situations of child maltreatment. We begin the chapter with a brief history on the emergency of child welfare systems in the US, along with a discussion of the central developmental theories that have influenced policy and practice in this arena. Next, we provide a brief overview of the literature on the developmental outcomes known to correlate with child maltreatment. We then review the empirical evidence associated with nine major policies and practices common to the child welfare field in the US. This discussion i organized around the "front-end", "ongoing services," and "back-end" stages of a child welfare case, and attends to the effects of policies and practices on the three central goals of child welfare systems: promoting the safety, permanent family placement, and well-being of children at risk of, or who are victims of, maltreatment.
