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An Act To Amend the Child and Family Services and Child Protection Act To Require the Department of Health and Human Services To Make Best Efforts To Prevent Removal of a Child from a Home
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §4003, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2017, c. 470, §1, is further amended to read:
 
3. Rehabilitation and reunification as a priority.   Require that reasonablebest efforts be made to rehabilitate and reunify families as a means for protecting the welfare of children, but prevent needless delay for permanent plans for children when rehabilitation and reunification is not possible;
 
SUMMARY
This bill amends the Child and Family Services and Child Protection Act to require that best efforts, rather than reasonable efforts, be made by the Department of Health and Human Services to rehabilitate and reunify families as a means of protecting the welfare of children.