Child Welfare and the Law provides an overview of the child welfare and judicial systems in the USA. It examines the federal and state legislative and judicial foundations of modern child welfare practice; court decisions and their impact on the rights of birthparents, foster parents, and children; class action suits and their impact on child welfare; and the role of child welfare workers in the legal process.

Appendices provide detailed instruction on conducting legal research and excerpts from a consent decree. The fully-updated third edition includes new chapters on adoption law and professional liability. The author has also expanded his original chapters on the rights of birth parents and foster parents and legal research strategies.