What Are Reasonable Efforts

Statute: § 47.10.086

The department's duty includes the duty to:

Identify family support services that will assist the parent or guardian in remedying the conduct or conditions in the home that made the child a child in need of aid

Actively offer the parent or guardian, and refer the parent or guardian to, those services
Document the department's actions that are taken

When Reasonable Efforts Are Required

Statute: § 47.10.086

The department shall make timely efforts to provide family support services to the child and parents that are designed to prevent out-of-home placement of the child or to enable the safe return of the child to the family home, when appropriate.

When Reasonable Efforts Are NOT Required

Statute: § 47.10.086

The parent has subjected the child to circumstances that pose a substantial risk of harm, including abandonment, sexual abuse, torture, chronic mental injury, or chronic physical harm

The parent has committed or attempted to commit murder of the other parent or of a child, or has committed felony assault that results in serious physical injury

The parent has failed, during the preceding 12 months, to participate in family support services
The department cannot identify and locate the parent

The parent has a mental illness and will be unable to care for the child in the foreseeable future

Previous substantiated abuse

Inability to protect the child from harm

Rights to another child have been previously terminated and conditions in the home not remedied

Incarceration of the parent for a substantial period of time