System of Care and Multiple Response shows us that most children are best served if their safety, health and well-being can be protected while remaining with their own families. When the County Department of Social Services becomes involved with a family after a substantiation of abuse, neglect, or dependency or a finding of services needed, the primary concern continues to be the child’s safety, health, well-being and permanency. The agency is responsible for making reasonable efforts both to maintain the child safely in the home, and to reunify a child and his/her family if removal has been necessary.
N.C.G.S. § 7B-101 defines reasonable efforts as “the diligent use of preventive or reunification services when a juvenile’s remaining in the home or returning home is consistent with achieving a safe, permanent home for the juvenile within a reasonable period of time.” The law defines a safe home as “a home in which children are not at substantial risk of abuse or neglect.”
