Foster Care: Recent Legislation Helps States Focus on Finding Permanent Homes for Children, but Long-Standing Barriers Remain (GAO-02-585)
June 2002 Foster Care: Recent Legislation Helps States Focus on Finding Permanent Homes for Children, but Long-Standing Barriers Remain (GAO-02-585) In response to concerns about the length of time children were spending in foster care, Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA). The act contained two key provisions intended to help states more quickly move the more than 800,000 children estimated to be in foster care each year to safe and permanent homes. One of these provisions, referred to as "fast track", allows states to bypass efforts to reunify families in certain . . .
