Rule 5.715.Twelve-month permanency hearing

Every removed child’s case must reach a permanency hearing within 12 months of the date they entered foster care — and, whatever else happens, no later than 18 months from the date of the initial removal. Those are two different clocks, and both bind.

The hearing runs on the general review rule, including the reasonable services finding, and adds four things. Where the child is placed with a noncustodial parent, the noncustodial-parent procedures apply. The court may order the name and address of the foster home kept confidential.

For an Indian child who is not returned, the court must determine three things: whether the agency consulted the tribe about tribal customary adoption; whether the tribe concurs with it; and whether it is an appropriate permanent plan.

And where the child is not returned and reunification services are terminated, the court makes two pairs of findings about relatives, each with its own remedy. Either the agency made diligent efforts to locate an appropriate relative or it did not, in which case the court or the review panel orders those efforts made. And either every relative whose name was submitted has been evaluated as a possible placement, or they have not, in which case the court orders the evaluations done. Ending services is the moment the search for family has to have been real.