At least where I live, as the case progresses and the foster parents create a bond with the kids, they really take what the foster parents say in heavy consideration. Especially if the kids have been assigned a good Guardian Ad Litem (the child's own lawyer).
The system can be broken. This is something that's governed very differently between states. And some states are far more broken than others. I think Utah (where I live) has a very good system (one of the few government programs I've learned a lot about and haven't been frustrated with how my tax dollars are spent). The numbers I'm familiar with say that 66% of all cases end with the kids going home with the parents. However, another statistic that makes that number much more impressive is that 75% of all cases, meth is involved in the home. So the state really works hard with the biological parents and places a heavy emphasis on reunification (as long as the kids will be safe from illegal activities) and the bio parents get a lot of government supported rehab no matter what the case is (ranging from parenting classes to alcohol/drug rehab). If you do the math, that means a lot of parents are successfully getting the rehab they need to they can support their children. I think that's impressive.
