Family reunification has become a main focus for most if not all child welfare agencies. A lot of agencies have gotten tunnel-vision with this and it seems to be the only goal that a lot of people involved child welfare are even looking at for the children. Yes, children most definitely need family reunification when it is the best thing for them.

Let’s be honest and open about all of this. The overall picture of the family situation and the abuse that the children have suffered needs to be part of this decision.If the child welfare agency has dealt with the same biological parents time and time again, reunification should not be an option for them.
We have laws that when people repeatedly break laws committing crimes they have three strikes and you're out. With the children, the parents are given multiple times and then they are still considered for family reunification.

Some parents themselves also come from troubled families with violence, drugs, abuse, etc. but that is not always taken in to account. The truth is that some parents become the product of their environment. I am not saying that this is the case for all families. There are people that have just gone down the wrong road in life and it does not have anything to do with the way they were raised.

So before we all start yelling for family reunification we need to be clear that it cannot work with every family. There needs to be other options than just family reunification when the best interest of the children is being decided.

I fully believe that family reunification can work with some biological families but it is not the answer for a lot of them. Bouncing a child from one family placement to other is not family reunification. It will not work if this is used as a blanket fix-all for the child welfare system.This seem to be a large part of what happens in family reunification.

Continued....Family Reunification How it Can Go So Wrong

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