Introduction
Research Questions
- What factors are associated with judges’ findings of reasonable efforts to prevent removal?
- What factors are associated with judges’ findings of reasonable efforts to achieve permanency?
- How are reasonable efforts findings related to the likelihood of reunification?
- How are reasonable efforts findings related to time to permanency?
A judge’s reasonable efforts decisions at child welfare hearings may avoid separating families and help children achieve permanency faster. As a result, judges play a critical role in child welfare cases. The Reasonable Efforts Findings Study (REFS) aimed to better understand how judges’ reasonable efforts decisions relate to case outcomes for children.
This brief provides an overview of the REFS findings and identifies takeaways for legal and judicial professionals to consider.
Purpose
This infographic describes describe key findings and takeaways from the REFS Study related to what factors are associated with judges’ findings on reasonable efforts to prevent removal and reasonable efforts to achieve permanency, and how reasonable efforts findings are related to likelihood of reunification and time to permanency.
Key Findings and Highlights
- No judges found that the child welfare agency had not made reasonable efforts to prevent removal.
- The more reasonable efforts topics addressed in documents submitted to the court before the first review hearing, the more likely the judge was to make a finding about reasonable efforts to achieve permanency at the first review hearing.
- Children were less likely to reunify with their parents when cases had:
- A judicial finding about reasonable efforts to achieve permanency by the first review hearing
- More detailed reasonable efforts to achieve permanency findings
- A petition allegation of abandonment
- A presenting problem of homelessness
- Cases with more detailed findings at the initial review hearing took longer to achieve permanency.
- Cases with physical abuse allegations took less time to achieve permanency.
Methods
We collected data in two ways:
Observing a random sample of recorded initial court hearings to capture information about hearing quality (e.g., judicial engagement of parents, topics discussed).
Reviewing court case files from the same cases to capture information on case characteristics (e.g., child age, petition allegations), reasonable efforts findings, details of findings and documents submitted to the court, timing of hearings, and case outcomes.
We collected data from a random sample of 348 closed child welfare court cases from 5 sites in 3 states.
Citation
Chiamulera, C. & Klain, E. (2024). The Reasonable Efforts Findings Study: Overview of Key Results (OPRE Report No. 2024-352). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.