Under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272), Congress outlined a case review system to assure that child welfare agencies monitor children under their care, that parental and child rights are protected, that agencies periodically report progress in implementing case plans, and that agencies work toward a permanent plan for every child in placement. The first of four volumes, this report presents the preliminary findings of the Phase II Comparative Study of Case Review Systems which focused on the dispositional hearing requirement. The study consisted of a national overview of the hearings in fifty states and Washington, D.C. and an in-depth study of the hearings in eight selected sites. The primary sources of information for the national study were telephone interviews with the state foster care administrator and one judge from each state. The data collection instruments for both parts of the study were designed to elicit information about the type of judicial review operating within the state and to specifically explore the state's status with regard to the P. L. 96-272 dispositional hearing components. Chapter topics include current status of the states; state status, change, and support for individual components of P. L. 96-272; periodic reviews and other procedures; due process and decision-making authority of dispositional hearings; impact and problems in implementing and recommendations of agency and court respondents; and preliminary conclusions and issues to be addressed. Extensive tables and appendices are provided, including the agency and court questionnaires used in the study. (DST)