Policy & Practice | Winter 2025

research corner By Alexandria Maldonado, Kirk O’Brien, Peter Pecora, Kimberly DuMont, Cynthia Weaver, and Brittany Mihalec-Adkins

From Planning to Progress: National Research Agenda and Tools for a Reimagined Child Welfare System

T he path forward for the child welfare system has become the subject of unprecedented debates in both research and policy circles in recent years (e.g., Casey Family Programs, 2023; Dettlaff et al., 2020; Palmer et al., 2022; Roberts, 2022). The U.S. child welfare system pri oritizes child protection over a more integrated approach to promoting family well-being (Brewsaugh et al., 2020). But recent work by the Centers for Disease Control (https:// bit.ly/3M287wI) , Prevent Child Abuse America (https://preventchildabuse .org/resources) ,and the U.S. Children’s Bureau (https://govfacts.org/federal/ hhs/preventing-child-abuse-and neglect-resources-for-families) have outlined how multisector strategies, including the Family First Prevention Services Act (https://acf.gov/cb/title iv-e-prevention-program) can support the child welfare system in preventing child maltreatment and promoting the well-being of families. To support reimagining the child welfare system, over the last 10 years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Programs, and the William T. Grant Foundation have strived to produce and utilize relevant research findings; it then became apparent that there was value in developing a com prehensive national research agenda for child welfare. Beginning in 2020, this was accomplished by engaging a wide range of people from different disciplines supporting the child welfare system—health care, law,

medicine, psychology, public health, social work, and sociology—but also centering people with lived experi ence. Thus, the National Research Agenda for a 21st Century Child and Family Well-Being System (“National Research Agenda” https://nation alresearchagenda.org ) was crafted to shape the future of child welfare through funding, collaboration, and innovation—centered on the belief that research must play a critical role in transforming child welfare. This article describes the purpose

and major products of the National Research Agenda. Building the 21st Century Child and Family Well-Being System In 2022, the National Research Agenda produced a report that included the rationale for 23 high priority research gaps that resulted from the work of expert work groups and national consensus convenings. These 23 gaps—ranked as high-priority by expert work groups of researchers,

Illustration by Chris Campbell

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