ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a redefinition of reunification, outlines pertinent principles and guidelines, reviews evaluative research, and examines the increasing use of formal and informal kinship care. The theory, policy, and practice of family reunification have traditionally been based on the premise that children and youths in out-of-home care need to be either returned to their families of origin or placed in another permanent setting. It explores a number of implications for policy and practice that can contribute to these purposes, particularly through serving children and parents during the out-of-home placement episode, maintaining connections between children and their parents, and providing supports following reunification or placement in kinship care. The chapter builds on the view of preservation and child protection as, in many cases, complementary and, in essence, two sides of the same coin. The ideal of complementarity in the chapter explains the example of reunification of children in out-of-home care with their birth families.
