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Supporting and maintaining family connections are essential to health and well-being for children. Everyone working within the child welfare system has a part in safely reunifying families and obtaining positive permanency as soon as possible. June is National Reunification Month, a time to highlight resources available to child welfare professionals to inspire commitment, creativity, and focus to achieve reunification.
The June 2024 issue of The Children’s Bureau Express (CBX) highlights the importance of supporting families as they work toward reunification goals.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway’s reunification resource page contains materials to help professionals engage parents, assess readiness, and support reunification. Additionally, fact sheets to promote reunification for relative caregivers and foster parents and links to information related to reinstatement of parental rights are also provided.
During this year’s National Reunification month, the American Bar Association’s focus is on celebrating unified families. Their National Family Reunification Month webpage highlights various events and resources for parents and youth, judges, attorneys, and others working to keep families together.
Additionally, as part of the ABA’s celebration of National Family Unification Month, the ABA will host a webinar entitled Increasing Reunification Efforts by Eliminating Child Support Referrals on June 11, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. CT that will include a discussion of the new federal guidelines designed to improve unification efforts along with preventing unnecessary family separations, current child support practices, and the harmful impact of these practices in delaying reunification of families.
In Texas, the Children’s Commission’s Parent Resource Guide is a handbook designed specifically for parents to help them understand the Texas child welfare system and the path towards reunification. Also, the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) maintains Parent Collaboration Groups that support parents on the path to reunification and function as a link between parents and the agency to provide a unique perspective on how to improve services to families and children. A list of local Parent Collaboration Groups can be found on the DFPS website. Reunified parents who wish to volunteer with a group can contact their regional SSCC/CPS liaison for more information.
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