I. Impact of social and legal policies on placement -- Intervention versus interference: the role of the courts in child placement / Sharon Gross Portwood and N. Dickon Reppucci -- The plight of homeless children / Ellen L. Bassuk and Linda Weinreb -- Consequences of placement for children who are abused / Virginia G. Weisz -- Mental health policy and the psychiatric inpatient care of children: implications for families / Charles A. Kiesler. II. Alternative families -- Temporary foster care: separating and reunifying families / Inger P. Davis and Elissa Ellis-MacLeod -- The Casey Family Program: factors in effective management of a long-term foster care organization / Ruth Massinga and Ken Perry -- Not under my heart, but in it: families by adoption / Loraine Masters Glidden. III. Residential placement -- Placement and its consequences for families with children who have mental retardation / Jan Blacher -- Comprehensive service programming for children with autism and their families / Stephen R. Anderson, Susan F. Thibadeau, and Walter P. Christian -- Residential treatment for children with dual diagnoses of mental retardation and mental disorder / Steven I. Pfeiffer and Bruce L. Baker. IV. Reconceptualizing placement -- To have and to share: culturally constituted fostering in familial settings / Janet E. Kilbride and Philip L. Kilbride -- Commentary: a social policy perspective / Emmy E. Werner.