I worked as a guardian ad litem and as a court appointed attorney for both children and parents in foster care and adoption proceedings for 10+ years. Rules about who gets hearings and how often vary from state to state in America.

I agree that family reunification is the stated goal, and kinship placements are the stated preference throughout the American system. But where I practiced, in Massachusetts, a liberal state, those policies often did not translate into practice. Individual workers and supervisors are influenced by their personal prejudices, as in any profession. We live in a racist and classist society. No one is immune.