Permanency:
Reunification
AFCARS 21 data, as of July , 2014, indicates that there are:
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402,378 children/youth in foster care
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101, 840 children/youth waiting to be adopted
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Children/youth wait 37.3 months on average

50, 608 children are adopted annually from public agencies
Permanency Planning Goals
 Reunify with Parent(s) or Principal Caretaker(s) - 53%
 Live with Other Relative(s) - 3%
 Adoption - 24%
 Long Term Foster Care - 5%
 Emancipation - 5%
 Guardianship - 4%
 Case Plan Goal Not Yet Established - 7%
Outcomes for Youth Exiting Care,
Fiscal Year, 2014
 Reunify with Parent(s) or Principal Caretaker(s) - 51%
 Live with Other Relative(s) - 8%
 Adoption - 21%
 Emancipation - 10%
 Guardianship - 7%
 Transfer to Another Agency – 2%
So …. What is Permanency?
Defining Permanency
Permanence is not a philosophical
process, a plan, or a foster care
placement, nor is it intended to be a
family relationship that lasts only until
the youth turns age 18.
Defining Permanency
Permanence is about locating and
supporting a lifetime family.
For young people in outout-of home
placement, planning for permanence
should begin at entry into care, and be
youth--driven, familyyouth
family-focused, culturally
competent, continuous, and approached
with the highest degree of urgency.
Defining Permanency
Child welfare agencies, in partnership with
the larger community, have a moral and
professional responsibility to find a
permanent family relationship for each
child and young person in foster care.
Defining Permanency
Permanence should bring physical, legal
and emotional safety and security within
the context of a family relationship and
allow multiple relationships with a variety
of caring adults.
Defining Permanency
Permanence is achieved with a family
relationship that offers safe, stable, and
committed parenting, unconditional love
and lifelong support, and legal family
membership status.
Defining Permanency
Permanence can be the result of:

Preservation of the family;

Reunification with birth family;

Legal guardianship with kin/fictive kin;

Adoption

APPLA
So…. Let’
Let’s Look at FamilyFamily-Based
Reunification for Youth!
Reunification with Family
Family reunification in child welfare refers
to the process of returning children in
temporary out-of-home care to their
families of origin.
Reunification is both the most common
goal for children in out-of-home care as
well as the most common outcome.
Reunification statistics
In 2014,of the 402, 378 young people in care
53% had a permanency goal of reunification
51% of the children or youth who left care
were reunited with their birthparents or
another relative.
Reunification with Family
Family Engagement Is Fundamental to Successful
Reunification
Much of the literature addresses four dimensions of family
engagement:
1. The relationship between the caseworker and the family
2. Parent-child visitation
3. The involvement of foster parents
4. The involvement of a parent mentor or advocate
Reunification with Family
Accurate, Individual Assessment and Case Planning Are
Crucial for Successful Reunifications
Accurate differential assessment is essential.
Differential assessment involves developing an
individualized, family-centered understanding of a child and
family’s circumstances, environment, and potential in order
to identify each family’s unique needs, determine the extent
of the risk to the child, and to construct an appropriate
intervention plan
Reunification with Family
Services Should Be Practical and Comprehensive
Addressing All Aspects of Family Life Services and should be
designed to promote an environment to which a child can be
safely returned and to help maintain that environment after
reunification. A number of studies have supported the use of
interventions that have a behavioral, skill-building focus and
that address family functioning in multiple domains,
including home, school, and community.
Steps in the Reunification Process
1. Case plan goals, objections, and court orders. Most birth parents have numerous
objectives that they must fulfill in order to have their children placed back within
their home and may include the following:
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drug/alcohol classes or treatment, as needed
random urine analysis if substances and alcohol are an issue within the family
maintain proper, safe housing
maintain proper, legal employment or training
keep distance from past abusive people in their lives
attend needed classes, such as parenting, nutrition, or budgeting classes, etc.
attend therapy
take assessments as required
attend and participate in all case plan meetings
Steps in the Reunification Process
2. Progression of visits.
As time passes and the child remain in foster care, visits
between the child and birth parents will steadily
increase in frequency and moderation.
It's not uncommon for visits to move from supervised,
weekly visits to monitored, weekly visits to
unsupervised, weekly visits. Then they will progress
from overnights and weekends to several days in a
row.
The visits are often increased as birth parents complete
court orders, and have shown to be appropriate
during previous supervised and monitored visits.
Steps in the Reunification Process
3.
Court review of case plan goals.
Court dates give the judge a chance to
review the completion of court
orders and read reports from the
social workers,
workers, CASA
CASA,, GAL
GAL,, and
foster parents on how the case is
progressing and how the parents and
children are handling the different
transitions.
Steps in the Reunification Process
4. Role of the foster parent.
Foster parents help with family reunification through the following actions: role
model appropriate parenting skills to the birth parents at visits,
visits, at teacher
meetings,, and doctor appointments,
meetings
appointments,
 help the child manage behaviors through positive discipline
 help the child process grief and loss
 work with the child to meet educational and developmental milestones
 give feedback to the social workers
 transport the child to all doctor appointments, visits, and therapies
 be actively supportive of the reunification process including helping the birth
parent
Steps in the Reunification Process
5. Easing back into family reunification
through visitation.
The increase in visits leads into a natural
transition of the child returning back
home. This process may take several
months.
Steps in the Reunification Process
6. Home checks with social workers and
court officials.
Once the child is back home with birth
family a social worker, and/or sometimes
court officials, check in monthly with the
family for a set amount of time. For
example, in Kansas, the family is monitored
for 18 months after returning home. Again,
each state, country, or agency may have
different criteria and check points once the
family is reunified.
Steps in the Reunification Process
7. Case closed and family successfully
reunified..
reunified
At the end of the monitored time the
case is closed and social workers no
longer visit the family.
Reunification as a FamilyFamily-Based Permanency
Plan for Older Adolescents
Even reunification through the
reinstatement of parents rights which were
previously terminated should be
considered.
Reunification Should Be
Considered on a Case by Case
Basis
Families Must be Collaborators
in this Process
Reunification as a FamilyFamily-Based Permanency
Plan for Older Adolescents
Families CAN and DO Change –
Reunification is possible for many
children and youth!