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Dependency Decoded

Stage 09 of 14

During the case

Review hearings

The court returns to your case on a schedule to look at what has actually happened. These hearings are where a record of steady progress is built — or where its absence becomes visible.

Timing Held at least every six months while the case is open.

  1. Stage 1: When DCYF first contacts you
  2. Stage 2: The home visit
  3. Stage 3: Safety plans and voluntary placement
  4. Stage 4: If your child is an Indian child
  5. Stage 5: The Family Team Decision Meeting
  6. Stage 6: The shelter care hearing
  7. Stage 7: Fact-finding and disposition
  8. Stage 8: Your case plan and parenting programs
  9. Stage 9: Review hearings
  10. Stage 10: The permanency planning hearing
  11. Stage 11: Reunification
  12. Stage 12: Guardianship, adoption, and other outcomes
  13. Stage 13: Appeals and other remedies
  14. Stage 14: Moving forward

What the court is looking at

  • Whether ordered services were completed, and what they showed
  • Whether housing, income, and child care have stabilized
  • Whether visitation has been consistent, and how it has gone
  • Whether the safety concerns that started the case have changed
  • What the guardian ad litem or CASA recommends
  • Whether the department made reasonable efforts, or active efforts in an ICWA case

The agency’s efforts are on the record too. If referrals never came, that belongs in front of the judge.

Possible outcomes

  1. The case continues on the existing plan.
  2. The plan is modified — for example, replacing a service you cannot access.
  3. Visitation expands, or moves from supervised to unsupervised.
  4. The child returns home under continued court supervision.
  5. Permanency planning moves forward if there has been little progress.

How to prepare

  • ✓ Bring documentation rather than description. Certificates, results, pay stubs, the lease.
  • ✓ Be straightforward about setbacks and say what you did about them.
  • ✓ Raise barriers before the hearing, in writing, so they are not heard as excuses on the day.
  • ✓ Ask for the specific change you want — more visitation, a different provider.

If progress has stalled

Missed services, missed visits, and silence all accumulate on the record and can lead to tighter conditions, reduced visitation, or a move toward permanency planning.

The response is not to disappear. Tell your lawyer what is happening, ask for the plan to be changed to something you can complete, and get back on the record as engaged.

The law that applies here

Read the official text yourself.

Each entry begins with our plain-language explanation, followed by the official section caption. Use the link to read the complete, current text on the official Washington government website. The official text controls.

RCW 13.34.138

Review hearings — Findings — Duties of parties involved — In-home placement requirements — Housing assistance.

Plain-language explanation

Requires periodic review of the case, sets what the court must consider and find, and addresses in-home placement and housing assistance.

Read the official text

RCW 13.34.136

Permanency plan of care.

Plain-language explanation

Governs the written permanency plan the court reviews at these hearings.

Read the official text

Chapter 13.34 RCW

Juvenile court act — Dependency and termination of parent-child relationship

Plain-language explanation

The main Washington chapter governing dependency cases from the petition through review, permanency, guardianship, and termination. Different sections apply at different stages.

Read the official text