Exploring Which Factors Can Lead to Successful Reunification: Caseworkers' Perspectives

Background and Purpose:

Foster care reunification is the most common permanency plan for children in care, but it can be an incredibly challenging and stressful process for both the child and birth family. For success, a reunification must result in long-term safety and stability for the child. In order to understand what the process of moving a family towards reunification involves and what factors can lead to successful reunification, a survey was developed for caseworkers. The current study was designed to (1) explore what factors can lead to successful reunification; (2) examine differences between caseworkers who have experience with reunification but not reentry and those who have experienced both reunification and reentry.

Methods:

The Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System was queried to identify caseworkers who had children in their caseload exiting to reunification from January, 2013 through August, 2014 (n=942). An online survey was sent out to the caseworks and a total of 284 (30.4%) filled out the survey. Overall, majority of the caseworkers were female (83.8%), white (52.8%), and had at least a Master’s degree (70%). The caseworkers were asked to rank a series of statements based on importance (1=not important, 5=very important). These statements pertained to successful reunification and specific steps practiced by the caseworkers. The caseworkers were also asked three open-ended questions on factors that help ensure successful reunification, how they ensure reunification, and changes required to improve reunification outcomes. Descriptive and t-test were conducted, and the caseworkers’ responses were analyzed and categorized into four themes (the child, family, resources and agency factors).

Results:

The caseworkers indicated that many factors can lead to successful reunification. Almost all agreed that the most important factor is that the child will be completely safe with the family prior to reunification (M = 4.76, SD = 0.58). Caseworkers reported that they take several steps in practice when reunifying families. About 60% indicated that they always make sure that the parent-child visits occur at least monthly before the reunification (M = 4.40, SD = 1.10), and if the child has siblings they always make sure to maintain those connections (M = 4.25, SD = 1.05). Some significant differences were found between the two groups of the caseworkers.

Caseworkers who have experienced with reentry were more often using steps in practice to ensure successful reunification than caseworkers who have experience only with reunification. Responses of the open-ended questions revealed to four themes related to child and parental factors, resources, and agency factors that can lead to successful reunification.

Conclusions and Implications:

A majority of children who leave foster care are reunified with their families; therefore, it is important to focus on practices that help achieve successful reunification. The current study was based on the caseworkers’ perspectives and indicated that the major factor to a successful reunification is the child’s safety with the family. Also, pre- and post- services are critical to address all needs of the family in the process of reunification.