Permanency Planning Hearings

Every child protective proceeding involving a child that has been removed from his or her home has a permanency plan. That plan may be any one of the following:

• Reunification
• Adoption
• Guardianship
• Permanent placement with a fit and willing relative
• Placement in another planned permanent living arrangement

A Permanency Planning Hearing is held to determine whether reasonable efforts have been made to finalize the chosen permanency plan, and what efforts were made toward that plan. If the permanency plan is reunification, but the child has remained in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months, the court must order the caseworker to initiate termination proceedings unless a statutory exception applies.