Home Study Methods for Evaluating Prospective Resource Families: History, Current Challenges, and Promising Approaches.

The article discusses the history, purposes and current challenges of adoption home studies, and how the Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE) may address the challenges facing foster care and adoption practice. SAFE is a uniform home study format that encourages consistent family evaluations across workers, agencies and jurisdictions. Home studies are the process by which families are approved for adoption. Home studies are also the process through which child welfare agencies identify appropriate foster of adoptive placements. The purposes and practices of home studies in adoption have changed significantly since their first use in the early part of the 20th century.