Across Alabama, parents are told the same thing by the Department of Human Resources: “Take these services, and you’ll get your children back.” It is said as if it is a guarantee, a roadmap to reunification. For countless families, it becomes the cruelest lie they will ever hear.

While parents attend classes, complete counseling, pass drug screens, and do everything asked of them, DHR continues building a separate case for termination of parental rights. They monitor compliance not as a step toward reunification, but as a checklist for how to end the case on their terms.

The reality is written in black and white. Alabama’s own policy outlines how termination can move forward regardless of completed services if the agency decides it is in the “best interest” of the child. That decision is made by the same people who control the services, control the reports, and control the court narrative.

This is not reunification. It is a pipeline. Services bring in federal and state funds, and the end result for many parents is the permanent loss of their children.

Read Alabama’s Termination of Parental Rights policy for yourself: View the policy here.

Parents deserve honesty. Families deserve a real chance. The system should not be allowed to profit from both the promise and the destruction.

Lawmakers across this state must step in and address this weaponized system.