Case Title: In re S.W.

Citation: 176 Vt. 517, 2003 VT 90, 833 A.2d 879

Docket Number: 2003-278

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 2003-10-02T00:00:00Z

Document:
In re S.W. (2003-278); 176 Vt. 517; 833 A.2d 879

2003 VT 90

[Filed 02-Oct-2003]

                                 ENTRY ORDER

                                 2003 VT 90

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 2003-278

                             OCTOBER TERM, 2003

  In re S.W., Juvenile	               }	APPEALED FROM:
                                       }
                                       }
       	                               }	Bennington Family Court
                                       }	
  	                               }
                                       }	DOCKET NO. 233-12-01 Bnjv

                                                Trial Judge: Ellen H. Maloney

             In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       ¶  1.  Father appeals from the family court's order terminating his
  residual parental rights over his daughter S.W.  Father argues that the
  court erred in concluding that his progress toward parenting had stagnated
  even though he had substantially complied with the services and
  expectations of the case plan.  We affirm.

       ¶  2.  S.W. was born in December 1999.  Father was thirty-one at the
  time of S.W.'s birth; mother was seventeen and in SRS custody.  S.W. has
  been in and out of SRS custody since April 2000 based on mother's lack of
  parenting skills.  Father has been incarcerated since December 2001 for
  assaulting mother.  In June 2002, S.W. was adjudicated a child in need of
  care and supervision (CHINS) and placed with her current foster family.  In
  its initial case plans, SRS sought reunification of S.W. with mother.  The
  case plans did not contemplate S.W.'s reunification with father. SRS
  prepared a disposition plan in August 2002 that contained the same goal of
  S.W.'s reunification with mother as well as a requirement that father
  complete any programming required by the Department of Corrections and
  maintain regular contact with S.W.'s social worker. 
   
       ¶  3.  In November 2002, SRS changed its case plan goal from
  reunification to adoption and filed a petition to terminate parental
  rights.  Mother voluntarily relinquished her parental rights, and after a
  hearing, the family court terminated father's rights.  The court concluded
  there had been a substantial change in material circumstances because
  father's progress had stagnated.  The court found that father had shown
  little improvement in his parenting ability during the fifteen months since
  S.W. had been adjudicated CHINS.  The court rejected father's assertion
  that his ongoing compliance with the case plan precluded a stagnation
  finding.  First, the court explained, father had not complied with the case
  plan because he had not completed the programming required by the
  Department of Corrections and would not be able to do so until at least
  February 2005.  The court found the completion of these programs essential
  to father's ability to parent.  Second, the court explained that father's
  to-date compliance with prison programming did not necessarily signify a
  meaningful improvement in his ability to properly care for S.W.  The court
  found that even if father showed some improvement, a finding of stagnation
  was appropriate because it was unlikely that father could resume parental
  duties within a reasonable period of time due to his incarceration, his
  vulnerability for reincarceration, his need for substantial parenting
  education, and the lack of any parent-child bond.  Thus, the court
  concluded that a change in material circumstances had occurred, and after
  weighing the factors set out in 33 V.S.A. § 5540, it concluded that
  termination was in S.W.'s best interests.  Father appealed.      

       ¶  4.  When the termination of parental rights is sought, the trial
  court must conduct a two-step analysis.  In re B.W., 162 Vt. 287, 291,