This compendium provides an orientation to basic issues of child and family policy. It includes an overview of the recent history of child and family policy in the United States; an exploration of several political economic conditions underlying changes in these policies; a historical survey of policies toward dependent children; and case studies of selected local, state, and federal policies. The case study approach helps to discern patterns in successful and unsuccessful policies, clarify assumptions and values that underlie them, and develop evaluation criteria. Policy formation is the focus in analyses of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act; family support initiatives in Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland; and municipal policies for homeless families in Atlanta, Denver, and Seattle. Examinations of the federal Baby Doe regulations and AIDS education policy in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, public schools highlight policy implementation. An account of the Massachusetts Day Care Partnership Project concentrates on the third phase of policy analysis: policy evaluation. The concluding chapters stress the importance of considering race, class, and gender in defining social problems, setting policy agendas, and structuring and evaluating policies and programs. They then provide an analytic framework for assessing future responsibilities for U.S. child and family policy.

A 1990s compendium of important issues and cases relating to child and family policy, one of the foremost areas of public policy concern in the United States today.

DedicationEpigramAcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Francine H. Jacobs and Margery W. DaviesChild and Family Policy: Framing the Issues by Francine H. JacobsWho's Minding the Baby?: Reproductive Work, Productive Work, and Family Policy in the United States by Margery W. DaviesDependent Children and Their Families: A Historical Survey of United States Policies by Cherilyn E. DavidsonCongressional Responses to Families in the Workplace: The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1987-1988 by Katharine Karr KaitinPolicy Entrepreneurship and the Emergence of Family Support Programs by Bonnie HausmanMunicipal Policies for Homeless Families by Priscilla M. D. LittleSelective Non-Treatment of Handicapped Newborns: Implementation of the Baby Doe Laws of 1984 by Martha PottAIDS Education in the Cambridge Public Schools: An Implementation Study by Robert B. GriffithA Season in the Sun: The Massachusetts Day Care Partnership Project by Lucy Hudson and Susan Latts VlodaverConsidering Race, Class, and Gender in Child and Family Policy by Margery W. Davies and Francine H. JacobsOn the Eve of a New Millennium by Francine H. Jacobs and Margery W. DaviesBibliographyIndex