Resources

• Successful Family Reunifications Project
  Successful Reunifications – The Power of Stories, the 2006 report from the Successful Family Reunifications Project in which families in Washington State shared their challenges they faced, their insights into what led to their success, and their ideas about how we can help more families succeed. The project was sponsored by the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts, Court Improvement Program and Catalyst for Kids.

• “Get Your Kids Back” Poster
  “Get Your Kids Back” Poster available for download from the Catalyst for Kids website.

• Promising Practices in Reunification
  This paper looks at five practices that are important components of reunification programs that appear to be achieving good results. These practices are: placement decision-making; parent-child visiting; intensive services; resource parent/birth parent collaboration; and aftercare services. By Susan Dougherty (April 2004)

• Assessing the Context of Permanency and Reunification in the Foster Care System
  Westat and Chapin Hall Center for Children prepared this examination of reunification and permanency in the child welfare system for the Department of Health and Human Services. (December 2001)
  
  The report presents a compendium of six papers:

• Permanency: A Balancing Act, presents a framework for thinking about permanency and explores the status of reunification within the permanency continuum.
• Permanency and Reunification Trends in 25 States provides an overview of the types of efforts (services and programs) provided at the state and local levels to improve reunification of children. I
• The Evaluation of Programs for Permanency and Reunification expands upon the first paper and reviews what must be learned to develop more effective programs for achieving permanency.
• Reunification From Foster Care in Nine States, 1990-1997, presents analyses using the Multistate Foster Care Data Archive to describe the basic structure of the exit process from foster care.
• The Role of Race in Parental Reunification explores whether race is a strong predictor of reunification when combined with other child, family, or case history characteristics, and whether the main effect of race is reduced when controlling for other important predictors of reunification.
• Caseworker Decision Making examines the reunification decision making process and those factors that are considered by caseworkers and staff in determining whether to work towards reunification.

• Family Reunification
  This article from The Future of Children by Fred Wulczyn discusses family reunification policy and practice. It begins with a discussion of the legal framework shaping family reunification policy and practice. It then assesses what is known about the factors that can affect the likelihood of children successfully reunifying with their birth parents. Next the article examines reunification within the broader context of child welfare outcomes and the problem of unsuccessful reunification—when children are reunified with birth parents only to later reenter the foster care system. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of implications for policy and practice, with a focus on the key issues to be addressed if we are to improve the likelihood of children successfully reunifying with their birth parents.

• Intensive Foster Care Reunification Programs
  The goal of this study is to fill the knowledge gaps on family reunification by pursuing the following four objectives: Begin to identify and describe the range and variety of intensive family reunification programs; Describe the role that family reunification programs play in the child welfare system; Discuss how family reunification programs measure success; Describe lessons learned by programs in implementing these special or intensive family reunification services. (June 1992)

• Reuniting Looked-after Children with their Families
  This review of the research in the UK and USA, from York University, presents the available research evidence on patterns and outcomes of reunion. (2006)

• Reunification: A Decision and Practice within Provisional Safety Management
  This brief from Action for Child Protection discusses the reunification of foster children with their parents within the framework of provisional safety management. It begins with an explanation of the components of the reunification decision and the reunification decision benchmark. Essential rules for reunification are reviewed, along with criteria for safety assessment and implementation of the safety plan. Finally, an overview is provided of the process that can be used to achieve reunification. (2006)

• Foster Care Re-Entry: Evidence and Implications
  This literature review from the Bay Area Social Services Consortium examines the research on foster care reentry following reunification. It begins with a brief discussion of the role of reentry into foster care in the context of the goals of the child welfare system, followed by a presentation of the major findings on risk and correlates of foster care reentry, resilience and correlates of successful reunification, and the impact of child welfare interventions and service models on reducing reentry. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for child welfare practice and future research. (2008)

• Together Again: Rise Magazine
  When children come home from foster care, parents and kids have to get to know each other once more. Parents who’ve been to rehab, therapy, or parenting classes have changed, and their kids have had experiences in care that their parents don’t know about or understand. On top of that, it can be difficult to deal with the anger, guilt, and anxiety you all feel, and to show each other the love and happiness you have inside. In this issue of Rise, parents talk about what helped their families become whole again. Rise Magazine is written by and for parents involved in the child welfare system. Its mission is to help parents advocate for themselves and their children. (Summer 2006)
  
  
• Getting Reacquainted with a Parent
  This video column by Mabeka Lavan, available on the Lives in Focus: Family Life Behind Bars website, focuses on the issue of reunification. The webpage explains: “Getting reacquainted with a parent can be daunting at any age. Add the pressure and stigma of a reunion post incarceration, and the effects can be overwhelming and particularly stressful. These tips can hopefully start someone facing this situation on the path to a healthy relationship.” (2010)
  
  
• Children’s Bureau Express (CBX): December 2010/January 2011 Edition
  This issue of CBX spotlights in-home services, which refer to all the services provided in the home and elsewhere that support families with children living at home. In-home services include early prevention services as well as post-reunification services. Read about the new National Resource Center for In-Home Services and about promising practices in in-home services.

Resources from the States

• California: Birth Parents and the Reunification Process: A Study of the Mendocino County Model
  In Mendocino County, California all families whose children have been removed are referred by the court to a local Family Center, where they are offered weekly groups, parenting classes, and visitation services. Participation in Family Center services appeared to increase birth parents' sense of control over their circumstances. The findings of this study suggest that the Family Center service model holds promise as a supportive intervention for birth parents. (2004)
  
  
• Maine:
  Parent Education & Training Programs in a Child Welfare Population: A Review of the Evidence
  • Executive Summary: This review compares and contrasts the utility of the most widely used and disseminated models of parent training and education according the strength of the empirical evidence and their relevance to parents with substantiated histories of child maltreatment. (2010)
  • Matrix: Review of Parent Education Models for Family Reunification Programs (2010)

• Missouri: Permanency Through Reunification
  The Missouri Child Welfare Manual, Section 4: Out of Home Care, Chapter 10, addresses Permanency Through Reunification. It provides an overview and includes the following sections: Legal Basis; Definition and Purpose; Factors to Consider in Family Reunification; Development of the Case Plan/Written Service Agreement for Reunification; Time Limits; Family Approval; Services/Resources; Case Plan/Written Service Agreement Implementation; Case Plan/Written Service Agreement Review; Recommending Reunification; Steps Taken in the Process of Returning the Child. (December 2007)
  

• New Mexico: Best Practices - Transition Home Plans
  In New Mexico, a permanency option of reunification requires the development of a Transition Home Plan. This bulletin outlines best practices and describes the roles of caseworkers, judges, attorneys, court staff, and CASA volunteers. (2000; 2003; 2007)

• Ohio: Re-entry in Child Protective Services: A Rapid Evidence Assessment
  The University Research Consortium synthesized the published research literature on methods to reduce re-entry to foster care for those children who have been reunited with their families. This report provides a description of the existing interventions used to reduce re-entry and assesses the rigor of the research that has been done to evaluate the interventions. It also provides a summary of the nonexperimental research that has been done on the factors associated with re-entry, and recommends next steps for reducing re-entry rates in Ohio. (2005)

Teleconference

• Reunification Models
  On May 30, 2007, the NRCPFC and CWLA hosted a teleconference for state foster care and adoption managers on reunification models and programs. To listen to the audio files and download the handouts, click here.

Bibliography

• Reunification Programs and Practices, 2002 to 2007
  This annotated bibliography was compiled in May 2007 for an NRCPFC teleconference by the Child Welfare Information Gateway. For newer titles added to the Gateway database, click here.

Websites

• Evaluation of Family Preservation and Reunification Programs
  This project, conducted from 1994 through 2002, was intended to rigorously evaluate programs designed to prevent the placement of children in foster care when it can be avoided. A related effort to reunify families who had at least one child placed in foster care was also evaluated, and related issue papers on family preservation, fiscal reform, and cost estimation were produced. Westat, Chapin Hall Center for Children, and James Bell Associates conducted the evaluation and wrote the reports.

• National Data Analysis System - National Working Group
  The National Working Group to Improve Child Welfare Data (NWG) is a state-driven effort to identify common definitions, patterns and differences in state child welfare data, better understand the data and how it reflects practice, and ultimately achieve standardization in selected areas. NWG is facilitated by the Child Welfare League of America at the request of NDAS sponsor states. To date the NWG has focused on the federal outcome measures and standards used as part of the Child and Family Services Reviews. The site includes several items related to reunification.
  

• Child Welfare Information Gateway: Family Reunification Resources
  This section of the Child Welfare Information Gateway website includes sections on engaging parents in reunification, reunification assessment, reunification with substance-abusing parents, and preventing re-entry, and offers resources related to family reunification.
  
  
• National Reunification Day Webpage
  This webpage, featured on the American Bar Association website, includes information about National Reunification Day, Tools for Planning Your Reunification Day Celebration, and Research and Information about Reunification. The goal of National Reunification Day is to celebrate families and communities coming together and to raise awareness about the importance of family reunification to children in foster care.