Assessing Readiness for Reunification

As families make progress toward reunification, it is important child welfare agencies, courts, and other service providers work across disciplines to assess the family's strengths and needs to determine when it is safe and appropriate to return a child home. Working with the family, caseworkers examine such variables as whether the safety issues that resulted in out-of-home placement have been addressed, whether parents and children have received the services outlined in the case plan, whether parents have met other case plan requirements, whether there is a plan in place to keep children safe once they return home, and more. The following resources can help workers with assessment; they also include State and local examples.

Assessing Families for Permanency: Guidance From Research
North Carolina Division of Social Services & Family and Children's Resource Program (2013)
Children's Services Practice Notes, 19(1)
Describes key assessment areas for reunification to prevent disruptions and dissolutions in permanency.

Assessing the Needs of Reunified Families From Foster Care: A Parent Perspective
Stephens, Gopalan, Ortiz, Martinez, Parchment, Burton, Brantley, & McKay (2017)
Child Welfare, 94(6)
Offers findings from a study on the parent perspective on postreunification needs for families. The study concludes with policy and practice recommendations for better understanding the needs of families postreunification.

Family Engagement Inventory
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Familiarizes professionals with how family engagement is defined and implemented across child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, education, and early education.

When Considering Reunification Readiness (PDF - 60 KB)
Pennsylvania child Welfare Resource Center
Outlines considerations child, perpetrator, nonoffending parent, and kin when assessing readiness for reunification.

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State and local examples

Comprehensive Assessment Planning Model – I.S. Reunification Assessment Instructions (PDF - 30 KB)
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Guides child welfare workers through a series of questions designed to gauge a family’s readiness for reunification.

Reunification Assessment
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Discusses the structured review process for assessing and determining a family’s compliance with court orders, family conditions, resources, strengths, and vulnerabilities in advance of reunification.

Reunification Guidance
Leeds City Council (2016)
Provides guidance on the processes and framework for determining whether a child can be reunified with his or her birth family.

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