When Home Is Still Unsafe: From Family Reunification to Foster Care Reentry

• Published date: 01 October 2018
• Date: 01 October 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12499

S A. F Pennsylvania State University

K M. P. S  E G University of Texas at Austin∗

When Home Is Still Unsafe: From Family

Reunication to Foster Care Reentry

Reuniting children with their families is the pre-

ferred outcome of foster care, yet many children

reunited with their families reenter foster care.

This study examined how parental substance

abuse and mental health problems, and the time

allotted for reunication, are associated with

reentry risk. We used a complete cohort of chil-

dren who entered the Texas foster care system in

scal years 2008 and 2009 to identify the risk of

foster care reentry within 5years of reunica-

tion using selection-adjusted multilevel survival

analysis. Approximately 16% of reunied chil-

dren reentered care within 5 years. Substance

abuse and mental health problems predicted

higher rates of reentry. Reunication after

12 months was associated with increased reentry

risk overall, but not among children commonly

exempted from federal permanency timelines.

Permanency guidelines that restrictthe length of

time to achieve reunication may have the unin-

tended consequence of pushing reunication

before maltreatment risks have been resolved.

Children enter foster care when they are unsafe

in their homes and it is determined that no

Pennsylvania State University,Department of Sociology

and Criminology, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network,

505 Oswald Tower,University Park, PA 16801

(Saf252@psu.edu).

∗University of Texasat Austin, Department of Human

Development and Family Sciences, 1 University Station

A2702, Austin TX 78712

Key Words: child abuse, children, family, foster care, sub-

stance abuse.

services or intervention short of removal from

the home would ensure their immediate safety.

Foster care is intended to provide a temporary

living arrangement for children while their par-

ents work to resolve the circumstances that cul-

minated in the children’s removal. The majority

of children exiting foster care are reunied with

their families after a case services plan is com-

pleted (U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services [USDHHS], 2017), yet their safety is

far from assured. Studies have estimated that

one in ve children reenter foster care within

5 years of reunication (Brook & McDonald,

2009; Wulczyn, 2004). Understanding why, and

under what conditions, children reenter foster

care is the key goal of this study.

B

Although states have long been required to

make reasonable efforts to reunify children in

foster care (Adoption Assistance and Child

Welfare Act of 1980), caseworkers struggle to

identify and address families’ multiple and often

complex needs (Dolan, Casanueva, Smith, &

Ringeisen, 2012). Given difculties in address-

ing families’ needs, foster care reentries may

reect unresolved, rather than newly emerging,

risks (Kimberlin, Anthony, & Austin, 2009).

Indeed, a large proportion of reentries occur

within a year of reunication (Wulczyn, 2004).

However, the extent to which children reen-

ter care for the same reasons as the previous

removal is less clear. Prior work in this area has

largely focused on describing overall reentry

Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (October 2018): 1333–1343 1333

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12499