Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

We’ve written about the process of terminating a parent’s custodial rights to their child an different cases presenting unique and unusual circumstances. In some instances, the process is almost rote due to parental ambivalence to the situation; the parent has made no real effort to be a parent to the child and allows the process of termination and adoption by a step-parent or third party to move forward unimpeded.

There are other times when a parent fights the termination and desperately tries to retain their custodial rights under any number of challenging and difficult circumstances. There may be legitimate justifications for the termination, or there may be zealous advocates unwilling to give a parent a chance to reassert themselves in the parental role. The decision is made based on the child’s best interests and appealing the trial court’s decision to terminate parental rights is difficult due to the deference to the trial court’s discretion and determinations of credibility.

A recent Pennsylvania case, however, highlights that despite the best efforts of the parents, the Court, Children and Youth Services, and other members of the support system, it is still in the best interests of a child to terminate the parents’ rights. Such is the case of In the interest of: M.T. et. al., 2014 Pa.Super. 223.

This case involves parents who consented to the removal of their two young children. Abuse and neglect had occurred resulting in significant injuries the kids. The parents acquiesced to the removal of the children and to undertake a structured reunification plan. Unfortunately, this couple simply could not get themselves sufficiently together – even allowing for being intellectually deficient – despite what appears to be an understanding by those agencies and third parties involved that they were making efforts to follow the plan.

The appeal is derived from the trial court’s decision to change the case goal for the children from reunification with their biological parents to placement and adoption by third parties. The parents appealed the decision to change the goal on the basis that it was improperly modified and that they had met all the requirements of the unification. They argued that there was insufficient evidence to show the children’s best interests were met by terminating their parental rights.

The Superior Court was unable to re-weigh the evidence and had to accept the trial court’s decision as to the credibility of witnesses. The trial court offered a well-reasoned and well-support justification for the goal change, including, the county agency’s demonstration that the conditions requiring the children’s placement persisted in the household, as well as a lack of acknowledgment that abuse occurred, and reliance on the grandparents (who perpetrated some of the abuse) for support.

In short, despite the combined efforts of the service providers, seventeen months had passed and the parents were unable to complete their reunification plan. At that point, it was in the children’s best interests to change the goal from reunification to adoption.

Unlike other situations, the biological parents had contact with the children – they would not have their rights terminated using the six month threshold for contact with the children. Instead, the trial court relied upon the testimony and evidence from the county agency and others to determine that despite being actively in a reunification plan that the children’s interests were best served by terminating that plan and moving the children toward adoption. Though they were bonded with their parents, the termination and adoption of the children by others served their interests more than to continue to hope that the parents would break through and fulfill the reunification requirements.

This is not to say the parents are sympathetic figures – the physical abuse the children experienced is horrible and included broken bones and burns. What this case highlights is that even those people working within the process of reunification will continue to be viewed against the standard of the children’s best interests and that those interests can run contrary to the desires, efforts, and wishes of the parents. Revising the plan goals and pursuing termination was firmly rooted in examining the efforts and progress of the parents over seventeen months and determining that the children’s best interests were served by ending the reunification process and allowing the children to move forward with adopted parents who offered the safety and stability they need to thrive.

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Aaron Weems is an attorney and editor of the Pennsylvania Family Law Blog. Aaron is a partner in Fox Rothschild’s Blue Bell, Pennsylvania office and practices throughout the greater Philadelphia region. Aaron can be reached at 610-397-7989; aweems@foxrothschild.com, and on Twitter@AaronWeemsAtty.