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Effective: 8/18/2026

G3.7 Reasonable Efforts in Determining Title IV-E Eligibility

Legal Authority

Introduction

​The agency is required to make reasonable efforts to prevent or eliminate the need for removal of the child from his home or to make it possible for the child to safely return to the child’s home for a child to be eligible and reimbursable under Title IV-E. Once Title IV-E eligibility is established, the agency must obtain a judicial determination that it has made reasonable efforts to finalize the permanency plan within twelve months of the date the child is considered to have entered foster care, and at least once every twelve months thereafter while the child is in care.​​​​​​

Practice Guidance

  • To verify that the requirement has been met, the Cabinet is required to provide evidence of its actions to a court of competent jurisdiction, and the judge rules in a court order whether the agency has made reasonable efforts to prevent removal. The judge must determine in a court order if such reasonable efforts were made, or not required in specific circumstances, and that the child’s health and safety are of paramount concern.
  • A court order within sixty (60) calendar days of placement signifying any one of the reasonable effort requirements meets the initial Title IV-E eligibility.
  • From the date of the court order, which includes one of these judgments (assuming all other eligibility criteria are met), the child becomes Title IV-E eligible initially and remains Title IV-E eligible for the duration of the child’s placement episode. Thereafter, the court must make an additional finding at least once every twelve (12) months that reasonable efforts to finalize permanency for the child are being made, or that efforts to reunite the child and family are not required.
  • If such a determination is not made, Title IV-E reimbursability ceases at the end of the twelfth (12th) month following the last judicial finding of reasonable efforts and begins again in the month when such judicial determination is once again made.​




Procedure

The CBW: 
  1. D​etermines that the court order from the judge meets one of the following:
    1. ​That a reasonable effort was made to prevent the removal before the placement of the child; 
    2. Reasonable efforts were not required because:
      1. ​The parent has subjected the child to aggravated circumstance (as defined by ​state law, which may include but is not limited to abandonment, torture, chronic abuse, and sexual abuse);
      2. The parent has:
        1. ​Committed murder of another child of the parent;
        2. Committed voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent;
        3. Aided or abetted, attempted, conspired, or solicited to commit such a murder or voluntary manslaughter;
        4. Committed a felony assault that results in serious bodily injury to the child or another child of the parent; or
        5. The parental rights of the parent to a sibling have been terminated involuntarily.


Documents

Revisions