The Reasonable Efforts Findings Study: Overview of Key Results

This publication summarizes findings from the Reasonable Efforts Findings Study, which examined judges’ findings at initial and review hearings and associated case outcomes for children. The study focused on judicial decisions designed to hold child welfare agencies accountable: whether they did enough (i.e., made reasonable efforts) to prevent removal of the child from the home and finalize the child's permanency goal.

The study sample included 300+ closed child welfare cases from 5 sites in 3 states.

Key findings include—

• 94 percent of reasonable efforts to prevent removal findings were made at the initial hearing
• 73 percent of first review hearings resulted in a judge’s finding that the agency had made reasonable efforts to achieve permanency
• 59 percent of cases resulted in children being reunified with one or both parents
• 657 days was the average length of time for cases to achieve permanency

More detailed information about the study and its findings are featured in the full report.