Reasonable Efforts Requirement/ IV E Eligibility

"Reasonable efforts" must be made by DFCS to prevent removal, and to facilitate reunification where removal was necessary to protect the health and safety of the child, to expeditiously move the child to permanency & finalize the permanent plan. (ASFA) Where reunification is the permanency goal, ASFA requires the case plan for each child must include a description of services offered and provided to prevent the removal of the child from the home and to reunify the family after removal. Neither the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 nor the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 provide any definition of "reasonable efforts."

Preventative and reunification services: Federal regulations require each state to submit a plan which specifies which pre-placement preventative and reunification services are available to children and families in need. The regulations provide a list of services which may be provided as part of this plan but these are merely suggestions not requirements. The following is a list of those services:

• 24-hour emergency caretakers;

• homemaker services;

• day care;

• crisis counseling;

• individual and family counseling;

• emergency shelters;

• procedures and arrangements for access to available emergency financial assistance;

• temporary child care to provide respite to the family for a brief period;

• home-based family services;

• self-help groups;

• services to unmarried parents;

• provision of or arrangements for mental health, drug and alcohol abuse counseling;

• vocational counseling or rehabilitation;

• other services the agency identifies as necessary or appropriate.

• 45 C.F.R. Ch. XIII, §1357.15(e)(2) (10-1-95 Edition).

• Making Reasonable Efforts: Steps for Keeping Families Together, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, also includes a list of recommended services to facilitate meeting reasonable efforts requirements:

• family preservation services;

• generic family based/family centered services;

• cash payments to meet emergency needs and to provide ongoing financial support;

• non-cash services to meet basic needs;

• food and clothing;

• housing (emergency shelter and permanent housing);

• non-cash services to address specific problems; in home respite care;

• out of home respite care and child day care;

• treatment for substance abuse/chemical addiction;

• treatment for sexual abusers and victims;

• mental health counseling/psychotherapy;

• parental and life skills training;

• household management;

• facilitative services

• visitation (to prepare both parent and child for their eventual reunification);

• transportation (when services are geographically inaccessible)

Reunification Efforts Not Always Required

• Reasonable efforts to reunify families are not always required and the provision of reunification services is limited. ASFA .

• An initial finding may be made as early as the dispositional phase, that reasonable efforts to reunify not be required, and a "non-reunification" plan be submitted in lieu of a reunification plan. 15-11-58(f).

• If a child has been in foster care 15 out of the most recent 22 months, the state is directed to file a petition to terminate parental rights unless:

• the state has placed the child with a relative;

• the state has documented a compelling reason for determining that terminating parental rights would not be in the best interests of the child; or

• if the state has failed to provide appropriate reunification services where such services were warranted, the state must now provide those services & suffer a finding of no reasonable efforts in that particular case.

• A permanency hearing must be held within 12 months after a child has entered foster care.

• Under certain egregious circumstances, reasonable efforts will not be considered. Federal guidelines and Georgia law recognize the need for immediate removal, as long as DFCS adequately documents the emergency nature of the situation for the juvenile court judge. The safety and health of the child are to be the paramount concerns throughout the case. Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-89), 15-11-58(a)(1).

Reasonable efforts are not required with respect to a parent of a child who has:

• subjected the child to aggravated circumstances including abandonment, torture, chronic abuse or sexual abuse,

• committed the murder or voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent or aided or abetted, attempted, conspired or solicited to do the same, or

• who has committed a felony assault that results in serious bodily injury to the child or another child.

• Reasonable efforts are similarly not required where the parental rights of another sibling of the child have been terminated involuntarily. 15-11-58(a)(4).

IV-E Eligibility & Funding

• federal eligibility & funding requirements for children in foster care through the Social Security Act

• child become eligible through findings in the Courts' Orders at different stages of the deprivation process

• once eligible, subsequent Court orders must maintain the appropriate language & findings to maintain the child's eligibility

• funding for the child's entire episode or duration in foster care is affected if the IV-E eligibility is not addressed. This can include the adoption supplement

• when making reasonable efforts finding the child's safety & health is of paramount concern

Three Steps to IV-E Eligibility & Funding

1. First Court ruling (order) which sanctions removal of the child from the home MUST explicitly state

   1. Continuation in the home would be "contrary to the welfare of the child"

   2. Court must be presented with evidence from DFACS and must make specific findings of fact supporting "contrary to the welfare"

   3. Findings must be explicitly documented & made on a case by case basis

2. Within 60 days of the child removal from the home, Court order must make a finding that reasonable efforts have been made to preserve the family or reunify the family OR that reasonable efforts were not required because of the limited circumstances of 15-11-58(a)(4)

   1. Judicial finding must be explicitly documented

   2. 15-11-58(a)(4)

      1. parent committed murder of another child of the parent

      2. parent has been convicted of the murder of the other parent of the child

      3. parent has committed voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent

      4. parent has aided or abetted, attempted, conspired or solicited to commit murder or involuntary manslaughter of another child of the parent

      5. the parents' parental rights to a sibling of the child have been involuntarily terminated

3. Judicial finding of reasonable efforts to finalize permanency plan

   1. Must be made within 12 months from the date of removal AND every 12 month thereafter

   2. Or where court has determined reasonable efforts for reunification are NOT required (Non Reunification Hearing) then within 30 days of the Court's determination

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GACC is an affiliate of the National Association of Counsel for Children	GACC Jane Okrasinski Executive Director Email: jane@gaccchildlaw.org