With welfare reform at the top of the U.S. Congress agenda, the orphanage debate has resurfaced. While adoption is a solution for some children, many children are difficult to place or legally unavailable for permanent placement. Editor Richard B. McKenzie contends that the resurgence of private orphanages or children's homes will become a favorable option for those children.

Rethinking Orphanages for the 21st Century reviews the policy reforms necessary for these homes to become reliable solutions for many of the nation's disadvantaged and abused children. McKenzie, who grew up in an orphanage in the 1950s, also includes the first and only large-scale survey of orphanage alumni, involving 1,600 respondents. Child welfare professionals, policymakers, sociologists, social workers, and family studies scholars will find this timely volume of great interest.