Reasonable Efforts to Preserve or Reunify Families and Achieve Permanency for Children

Series Title:  State Statutes
Author(s):  Child Welfare Information Gateway
Year Published:  2020
Current Through:  September 2019

To access the statutes for a specific State or territory, visit the State Statutes Search.

This factsheet discusses laws that require child welfare agencies to make reasonable efforts to provide services that will help families remedy the conditions that brought the child and family into the child welfare system. The issues examined include what constitutes reasonable efforts, when reasonable efforts are required to be made, and the circumstances under which reasonable efforts to reunify the family are not required. This publication presents a general overview of this aspect of child welfare law. Summaries of laws on this topic for all individual States and U.S. territories are available from the Statutes Search page.

Suggested Citation: Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2020). Reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify families and achieve permanency for children. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau.

This publication is a product of the State Statutes Series prepared by Child Welfare Information Gateway. While every attempt has been made to be as complete as possible, additional information on these topics may be in other sections of a State's code as well as agency regulations, case law, and informal practices and procedures.

This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.

We also recommend the following Information Gateway publications:

Suggested Citation: Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2020). Reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify families and achieve permanency for children. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau.

This publication is a product of the State Statutes Series prepared by Child Welfare Information Gateway. While every attempt has been made to be as complete as possible, additional information on these topics may be in other sections of a State's code as well as agency regulations, case law, and informal practices and procedures.

This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.