Concurrent Planning for Timely Permanence

Concurrent planning is an approach that seeks to shorten a child's or youth's stay in foster care by identifying and working toward multiple permanent family solutions at once. While returning a child to his or her family of origin is the primary goal for a child in out-of-home care, concurrent planning involves the parallel pursuit of an alternative permanency goal (e.g., guardianship or adoption) that would best serve the child if reunification is not possible. Federal law supports concurrent planning by requiring child welfare agencies to make reasonable efforts to reunify families while also promoting timely, stable permanence for all children in out-of-home care.

Concurrent planning involves engaging families and relatives early while developing a network of relatives, kin caregivers, or foster parents willing to work with families to serve as permanency and supportive resources for children when reunification is not possible. By considering all reasonable options for permanency as soon as a child enters foster care and pursuing those that best meet his or her needs, concurrent planning advances the child's best interests and achieves timely permanence.

This bulletin describes concurrent planning, outlines how it is practiced, and discusses how child welfare systems can support it. The bulletin also provides information on how to evaluate a family for reunification; how to prepare kinship, foster, and adoptive families for concurrent planning; and State and local examples of best practices related to concurrent planning and timely permanence. The end of this bulletin includes some key takeaways for professionals to keep in mind as they work to incorporate concurrent planning into everyday practice. 

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