Every child needs and deserves a permanent family whose support is unconditional. Research shows that the odds of a successful transition to adulthood are severely compromised when young people are cut off from a family environment and left to languish in group care. Focusing specifically on efforts to reduce the use of congregate care in the child welfare system, this issue of Casey Connects offers examples of how a new practice model is reducing the time kids spend in foster care; how new research on teenage brain development is promoting better policies and practices for older youth in foster care; and how jurisdictions successfully are transitioning more youth from group care to family settings.

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