The Department shall make reasonable efforts to reunify a family. This means providing appropriate services to help the parents overcome deficiencies. The Department shall offer referrals to these services even if the parents say they are not interested.  

Non-custodial parents shall also be offered services, as they may be a resource if the former custodial parent is not. Incarcerated parents shall also be offered services, even if it is only a referral to the services provided by the Department of Corrections. The Social Worker shall document in LINK all referrals to services and the parents’ degree of compliance.

When the parents have not consented to termination of parental rights, the termination petition must allege one or more of  the following claims regarding reasonable efforts to reunify the family: 

• the Department has made reasonable efforts to locate the parent or to reunify the child with the parent, or 

• the parent is unable or unwilling to benefit from reunification efforts, or 

• the court has determined during a previous hearing that reunification efforts are not appropriate. 

The Department may cease making reasonable efforts to reunify if a court has found that efforts are not appropriate. This is usually done at the time of the yearly permanency plan hearing.  

A motion can be filed at any time during the neglect or TPR proceedings to request that the court find that reasonable efforts to reunify are no longer appropriate. In that case, the court may find that reunification efforts are no longer appropriate if one or more of the following aggravated circumstances exists: 

• the child has been abandoned

• the parent has inflicted sexual molestation or exploitation on the child

• the parent has inflicted severe physical abuse on the child

• the parent has engaged in a pattern of abuse against the child

• the parent has killed a sibling of the child or another child of the parent by non-accidental, deliberate means

• the parent has requested, commanded, importuned, attempted, conspired or solicited the killing of the child or a sibling or another child of the parent

• the parent has assaulted the child or a sibling of the child or another child of the parent by non-accidental deliberate act that results in serious body injury

• the parental rights to a sibling were involuntarily terminated within three years of the filing of the current petition (reasonable efforts to reunify shall be made for at least 90 days prior to the filing of the present petition)

• ·the parent was convicted of sexual assault resulting in the conception of the child, or

• the child was placed in the custody of the Department pursuant to the conditions of the Safe Haven Act (Conn. Gen. Stat. §17a-57-17a-61). 

The parental rights of only one parent may be terminated in appropriate cases.