Noting the relatively little attention focused on linking child welfare practice with health care, early intervention, and other strategies that could effectively address the risks faced by young children in foster care, this policy paper is intended to challenge communities across the country to attend to the needs of children in or at risk of foster care placement. The paper highlights the special risks such children face and identifies strategies that service providers, courts, policymakers, and advocates can use to enhance the healthy development of young children in foster care and promote their prospects for permanency-- whether reunification with family or adoption. Key findings from research on young children in foster care are noted, in particular that a significant percentage of these young children do not receive basic health care such as immunizations; specialized needs resulting from developmental delays and emotional and behavioral conditions are even less likely to be addressed. The paper next details promising strategies to promote healthy development of young foster children, including providing developmentally appropriate health care, and creating monitoring and tracking mechanisms to ensure that needed health, developmental, and mental health services are provided. The paper then presents several action steps and key recommendations, such as harnessing the power of the courts to enhance foster children's healthy development; and developing explicit state and community-based strategies to ensure that young children in foster care have access to developmental health services, high quality child care including Early Head Start, and preschool and family support programs. The paper's two appendices list federal building blocks to improve the development of young children in foster care and program contact information. (Contains 51 endnotes.) (HTH)