the facts of the case and partially be ask each of you those facts from the perspective of what i believe is trustworthy social work crowd is in in abuse neglect court we are at the interface of law and social work and if  us does our job things can work out well we need to serve the best interests of the child and the purpose of the juvenile court act to secure for their child care and guidance preferably in his own home the agency in this case that was doing the social work had the power to do both of these things and i'm going to suggest to you they didn't do it when d c fs takes children from their parents and places them in foster care the social conduct hopefully a rational process to determine what went wrong and how we fix it right after protective custody right after that shelter care hearing specially trained social workers begin the integrated assessment process they try to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the parents and from their service plan is developed to reeducate and reform imperfect people with the desired result of getting them to at least meet minimum pairing standards that's  i listed a number of facts from the record as an example of the concept and i'm not sure of my latin suey generous i think these facts you don't see in most of the juvenile terminations appeals that you get this ted completed his service plan and then some he had a loving bond with his children everybody said that he had sobriety full time employment adequate housing that's the good news the kids had been in either seven or nine placements depending upon whether you count respite and they've been physically abused i would ask you to look at the at the pictures on the record physically abused in foster care and sorry please look at them the injuries did cause mr cares in t v to not be a happy camper on more than one occasion there's no doubt about it but he never took it out on the children if you look at the visiting law and see if you're going to fault him you need to you need to fault him more on the side of being the easy day ad then the the social work does not stop with the integrated assessment and the service plans those plans get evaluated and as you can see from the facts of this case a k the eldest child had some significant behavioral issues it took the baby full sixteen months to sort this out they first thought it was autism and autism is a spectrum and you know they figured he was somewhere on that spectrum but sixteen months later they determine it's more of a sensory processing issue most of over yes from what part where you of factor rose to a vote of the level that it did because that the case had been around for so long and the kids have been placed in all of these different  did but we can't blame either the parents or the agency for that i recall why they kept getting moved first placement is a relative has the kids for a while didn't work out second placement is where his butt worked and shortly after that miraculously the department a finds we're not going to indicate anybody even though he was what the foster parents at the time and be the foster parent said were giving notice we don't want these kids any more and then we go through a series of other placements while parents are doing services sixteen months is that a long time not in juvenile court not a terribly long time in juvenile court it's a little long but during this time you know on the one hand mom is working trying to work through her alcohol issues and fails dad works through parenting domestic violence substance abuse and then he counseling and then he tries to seek out other other resources to prove to the baby fold that he's a fit and proper parent but of course counsel it was a situation where dad had needed he was yes ma'am yes he did but as i understand the case law just because you admit you're unfit that doesn't terminate your parental rights here we have we still have to go through a best interest hearing and we now know of a few things that i'm not sure all the lawyers were right up against at the time and i and that brings us to the three evaluations you know i'm trying to explain it's a rational process and when we find out the problems we try to fix them we get three evaluations that occur the first is the insurer valuation from easter seals the second is a baby fold counsellor and the third is another of a more detailed evaluation seals one to each of those evaluations say each of them says that dad should be made part of the treatment plan process that dad is issued be allowed to learn about sensory processing disorder that dad should be part of helping a take it better what does the baby fall do with that nothing and that's the real problem if this is kind of your rational process if i'm going to go back and tell people do what they tell you to do and you'll get your kids back then some responsibility has to be placed on the agency when the baby falls on counsellors says and let me i'll just go ahead to not ask that i'll go ahead to that  the second report from december of thirteen references that first each was sealed report it talks about first of all that has unsuccessful requests to have his two transported to the baby fall for some of his counselling it was going to be family counseling before refused and they said oh you're just going to cram it into the visit to your relatively limited visit in time the report says that this is baby falls counsellor the report says the dead should be given full opportunity to understand and learn how to address the diagnosis for the older son it notes the information has been long unavailable it did take if you fold a while to to get easter seals to do all the evaluations and we give up on autism and we now realize what it really is sixteen months later the parent should be directly involved particularly in light of modeling as the preferred method of teaching history kerrison should have access to learning and implementing these important parenting strategies increase time should be made available for dad to participate in services with his son this should be outside of the child parent therapy visitation time and it never happens how do we know it never happen you go back to the service plan when things change in the case the service plan changes so that the parent is on notice as to what they have to do is the service plan ever change now that's the problem  so let me go back to where  us ok so the baby for commissions these evaluations the recommendations put dad in his rightful position as part of the treatment chain remember at this point in time the goal is still return home if you're going to be honest with parents if you're telling them the goal is return home then don't live with them don't tell them don't take the recommendations and not implement them that's not fair has a policy matter as a resource matter we spent a lot of money on this kid when you look at those evaluations on the back of the brief i included all of them what's interesting is the number of master's degrees and and other who we've got we've got a developmental pediatrician to speech language pathologist an occupational therapist an autism diagnostic clinical director we spend big bucks on this let's let's use that to use it that's all i'm saying sam tusky versus kramer the seminal case from the u s supreme court on what do we do to what burden do we place on at the terminations stage also says when the state moves to destroy weaken familial bonds hit must provide parents with fundamentally fair procedures i like the procedure i like the integrated assessment assess them the service plan treats them all we're asking for is follow through the recommendations work get this get involved and they blew it off all right so i talked about the second report let's go back to that first report this is in november of thirteen this is the easter seal interim discipline evaluation it recommends incorporating data in learning ways to teach and modified the behavior of his son you know when you look at most of them you know there's lots of visitation with lots of visits that are going to occur in a couple years you know you're going to get one a week you're going to get two hours they're very well tracked by the agency it's a good thing what's the purpose of this it's let's take what the parent is learning and see if they can apply it dad does wonderfully visitation you know as i read the visitation logs it's like it's my grandmother there because she's he's constantly cooking for these kids he's not just giving his kids happy meals or but those little snacky things he's cooking for these kids i'm surprised they're not overweight it recommend incorporating the dad it's important to dad be allowed to work or accurately cooperatively with his therapist and the school one of the things that when one see him was on the witness stand and they said that the question was something like did you know about all this stuff going on he said they never told me when the ip beatings were if the goal this return home he got to do that  but that kind of follow up on what judge harris was asking about it's clearly that judge fitzgerald emphasize in fact made his just decision i think based something number placements i think justice harris may have said nine may have been maybe seven whatever but was it the number of different placements which lead judge fitzgerald to conclude they could very well be the judge fitzgerald as we like on the fourth  the agency to do their job if the agency has recommendations to incorporate dad maybe if you got the idea into it six or eight months earlier and he learned all about sensory processing disorder maybe it wouldn't have taken so the third evaluation is from march of corteen this is the occupational therapy evaluation it is pretty technical because it talks in detail about this sensory processing disorder aka has a problem processing voices in noisy environments he needs a calming spot to retreat to and this is a quote when his engine is running too high and he needs to calm down this could be a play tent now this is right from the evaluation what's so ironic about this is six if as you read the visitation logs six months before this i'm going to read it to you september seventeenth two thousand and thirteen dad plays on floor with children creates a puzzle with them and then they played in a makeshift tent now i don't know if it's common sense or instinct but six months before this evaluation comes down it comes down and dad is doing the right thing only let me say one other thing while his children is in care as time went on mr kerrison did get more and more frustrated i attribute that in part because they made him live in never never land why do i call it that he never received any satisfactory explanation as to why his kid got bruised the expert psychologist who favored termination never took the time to see him once with his children in thirty months he never heard anything positive from anything it baby fold when asked to explain his olders child's level of anxiety he said i don't know they never included me in the ip meetings there was never any testimony his anger is directed at his kid there is never any evidence he abused his children easter seals recommends that he be involved in occupational therapy and it never happens easter seal recommends services to improve a case emotional regulation and dan should be taught once a month to have access to his parenting strategies it never happens he s interdisciplinary report recommends the agency incorporate the parents to teach the child different behaviors it never happens i keep a shelf therapy evaluation recommends dad's direct involvement with his son to help problem solving skills it never happens the complaint about mr kerrison from the agency he's frustrated he's angry you betcha the failures of the agency  never never land should not be allowed to weaken the bond between the parent and child especially when the goal is return home because that's not in the best interest of the child i'm not sure i there's only one question that this court needs to answer and there's only one question that the trial court did they answer usually this is a two step process involving unfitness in the best interest here is your honor pointed out  report all the previous reports all the testimony at the hearing looking at it in the trial those best interests children's best interest a case here that's important because respond even on appeal does not admit the children are in a better position with the worry of the foster parent here respondants testimony even at the best interest hearing in of course during all the visits and everything like that respondents position had always been adversarial of course the d c fs is the government's main contention with responded going forward was his anger problem clearly even respond its own independent counselor who he paid independently to observe these visits mr cruncher he testified even he admitted that respondent still had work to do with his anger problems so and as the as hair as dress affairs and turner pointed out permanency was the most important factor here especially a j and moved permanency in this case lori was the which was the foster mother her her last name was not provided she gave the children the best chance of permanency she wanted to adopt these kids she she wanted to she live with them as their own they should provided everything they needed she lived in a big house they each had their own room lori provided the permanency and stability that these children needed as the trial court correctly noted permanen y was the most important factor here defendant rich respondents progress respondents situation is anger management was only the only concern at this stage was moving forward whether you could have these kids returned to him in the foreseeable future nobody nobody testified that was the case the c testified that it would be at least a year before respond it would be deemed fit to have these children returned to them this is the exact opposite of her misery this is the exact opposite of stability the standard of review one standard of  to the proof beyond a reasonable doubt here lori was clearly the more permanent more stable and best choice for these  during this time you had many visits with the children very tough the police were called on to update so there and there was one specific testimony of a specific outburst where the children were present  clearly after a an outburst to the level that police should be called the it department is going to view that as obviously a setback in any kind of return home situation but what i'm trying to gather is during this two year period where the goal is return home what is it that is preventing the of the return home and during this period when kids are being placed from austria home  they be placed with the foster parent because this is a at the doorstep of the father is he not doing something that he should have been doing and i asked you know what was the the impediment to returning home and it was his anger management issues clearly that was a contributing factor there wasn't much testimony as to the history because quite frankly that wasn't the primary motive for this hearing it was the best interest of the children moving forward again there if they wanted to be an indictment on the the whole system or something like that maybe there would be more testimony regarding the the quick transfers to me as odd as well that they had been so many placements and just in just two years i see a lot of these cases and those the state is you  that's understandable i think the main problem with respondents whole angle to this case was his adversarial approach if he seemed to but has with the department again maybe it's understandable any abuse to their their child again most reasonable parents would probably work quicker to get through the service plan goals at that point but again the fitness of respondent that led terminations of respondents rights and then subsequent adoption by lori who was testified herself she was willing to adopt these kids and wanted to adopt these kids to say that the obvious opposite conclusion is clearly apparent which would need to be the standard here that would be ludicrous looking at the evidence that was presented at the hearing respondent testified as well the trial court the trial court evaluated his credibility the trial court evaluated the caseworkers credibility t court evaluated response independent counselors credibility to say that their findings were where error would be would be wrong in this case and because it's come with regard to our current foster parents i'm sure she's a nice lady but it turns the baby fall is alleging that the kids are bonded to her six weeks after being there she's my ever mom now that's nice but in foster home number two within a month i want to stay here forever ok so i know i'm starting to get the permanency question a little better kids do need them and see i don't doubt that for a minute but to what extent i guess if you look at sam possibly to what extent can we not play fair with dad and then say too bad i need permanency bye bye that's a question now we talked anyone would be angry seeing these injuries there is another witness problem is that all and she comes to watch a visit and this is long before we know that  sensory issue and he says my shoes are a problem my shoes are a problem and so whatever foster parent at the time buys in shoes they look like clowns use their very big and dad looks at the shoes and goes can i take the kid out and buy him some students and they said we won't let you do that at that visit he also sees a huge a rash on the back of the child's neck he takes a picture of the republican brass and the caseworker screams at him in front of the children and he gets angry and it's his fault now he tries to document the bruises to see case bucks and the caseworker screams at him as a visit at a visit and it's his fault chicken  egg i'm not sure but more important just as important as permanency is the bonds barb snyder the counsellor who does lots of visits says there's a significant bond between  the children and dad doctors ation and dr tyler who did the binding study says there is a significant bond and it at page twenty two of the brief it's i think it's just that it's good for a quick on as as we're doing the bonding study dad demonstrates good still in the four categories that the bonding study looks for structure and gauge men challenges dad approaches the children in a warm and nurturing manner the child the children appeared to enjoy activities with the father it just seems to me that we're putting a lot of importance on permanency and not enough on the bond lori has a bond after six weeks like dance i don't buy it but and that get back to one other question i think as harris said about permanency and why did it take so long i would say for the first six months or maybe a year and i don't i'm just guessing here they had tried to