Research Paper (40%) due week 11. A 10-12 page (exclusive of title page, appendices, and citations) research paper is due Week 10. The paper is to be written in accordance with APA guidelines.

Please select a problematic policy issue that affects the delivery of services for low-income families, substance-abusing families, or children with special needs. The policy issue can be a specific policy formulated at the federal or state level (e.g., Indian Child Welfare Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), or can be an issue which has been created by a number of interesting policies (e.g., concurrent planning, inter-racial or inter-country adoption). The selected policy issue should be of sufficient magnitude that its genesis and impact can be traced through scholarly literature, documents, and first-hand personal accounts, incorporating concepts and data from course readings and outside research. Also, the research paper must demonstrate a clear link between race, gender and inequality. The paper should:

identify the policy issue with specificity and summarize its importance and why you see it as problematic
present the historical context within which the policy issue developed, specifically citing any laws, cases, or orders that contributed to its creation
describe the impact (positive/negative) of the policy issue on consumers, practitioners, and service systems
analyze the groups, organizations, or types of people who were (or are) involved in the debate about the policy issue and their positions
discuss the assumptions and values underlying the policy issue
conclude with potential recommendations and rationale for change to the policy that you would make as a social work professional, and specific strategy which could be used to make this policy change
throughout the paper cite all sources in APA format. A paper of this magnitude should have no less than 8 scholarly journal citations external to class reading. The paper should also include direct quotes from the literature.
please note that no re-writes of the paper will be permitted. The student must hand in a clear, organized and focused paper on the first attempt. Students who hand in late papers will be penalized 20%.
for the student to receive full credit for the assignment, the student must answer all of the expected questions in a narrative manner. Short and fragmented responses will not be accepted and points will be deducted for each unanswered question.