Any comprehensive approach to children’s mental health must consider all services systems that touch children’s lives especially those like child welfare that provide services to children with high rates of emotional and behavioral disorders. This paper will review what is known about efficacious parent-focused interactions that can improve the lives of children in child welfare and explore possible reasons why such interventions are rarely used by child welfare agencies. Data from a pilot study suggests key features for increasing the implementation of efficacious practices to improve children’s mental health