PSU Magazine Fall 1987

by john Kirkland C onsider the plight of foster children. They are living a temporary existence, a kind of limbo between adoption and resettling with their natural parents. In 1973, there were so many bureaucratic and legal barriers to foster children receiv– ing "permanent placement" that changes were begging to be made. That was the year the Regional Research Institute for Human Services on the PSU campus set out to find a solution. Under contract with the Oregon Children's Services Division, the insti– tute launched a three-year study into ways to remove the roadblocks. Efforts were made to find the parents and work with them or, in some cases, to terminate the parent-child relation– ships and clear the way for adoption . Later, the emphasis shifted to prevent– ing children from going into foster homes at all. As a result, Oregon became the first state in the country to sharply reduce the number of children in foster homes. A lot of other states were in the same boat, so RRI developed a hand– book on the subject that was used nationwide. By 1980, the "permanency planning" guidelines established by RRI became standard practice a nd Congress passed the Adoption Assist– ance and Child Welfare Act, which put into law the kinds of standards the institute was responsible for initiating. That project is just one in a long line of success stories that has made the institute a nationally respected research center and has strengthened PSU's reputation for the progressive study of social problems. Regional Research Institute at PSU has made life easier for many families The director for all but the first of its 15-year history is Arthur Emlen, whom colleagues describe as a pioneer in child care issues, yet who is self-effacing, even humble. Regarding the stellar results of RRI's permanency research , Emlen said, "The states were trying to grapple with this problem, and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to help them with it." PSU MAGAZINE PAGE7 So highly regarded is his work in permanency planning that Emlen was honored this summer with a special award from the Secretary of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. At home, Emlen won PSU's Bran– ford Price Millar Award for Faculty Excellence, presented during this year's commencement exercises. Among the letters nominating him for the PSU award was one by Margaret