The primary challenge of delivering and evaluating family-based services lies in successfully assessing changes in families. This guide provides instruction for use of the Family Assessment Form (FAF), an instrument to help practitioners assess families at the beginning of service, develop individualized family service plans, monitor family progress, and assess outcomes for individual families. The FAF is designed as a standardized form that is adaptable for a variety of clinical, procedural, and program needs. Using a 9-point rating scale for individual items, the FAF enables practitioners to complete a psychosocial assessment of six areas of family functioning that is recorded in a quantitative manner and allows for monitoring family progress. The six areas of family functioning assessed by the FAF are: (1) living conditions; (2) financial conditions; (3) support available to caregivers; (4) interactions between caregivers and children; (5) developmental stimulation available to children; and (6) interactions between adult caregivers. The instruction guide provides a rationale for family assessment, details the development of the FAF, describes the FAF, provides information on training individuals to administer the instrument, describes the use of the FAF for program evaluation, discusses its test reliability and validity, and contains instructions for completing the FAF. A complete copy of the instrument is contained in the guide, including the "face sheet," the family functioning factors section, caregiver history and characteristics section, behavior concerns/observation checklist, and the service plan and closing summary. Contains 13 references. (KB)