Title: In re K.B.

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

ENTRY ORDER
 
                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 88-398
 
                            JANUARY TERM, 1990
 
 
In re K.B., Juvenile              }          APPEALED FROM:
                                  }
                                  }
                                  }          District Court of Vermont,
                                  }          Unit No. 3, Orleans Circuit
                                  }
                                  }
                                  }          DOCKET NO. 62-8-86 Osj
 
 
             In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:
 
     The juvenile's mother argues that the juvenile court lacked the
authority to hold an eighteen-month disposition review hearing ten months
after the filing of the original disposition order.  Soon after the original
disposition order, both the State and the juvenile moved to modify the dis-
position and thereby terminate parental rights.  The hearings for both the
dispositional review and the modification motions were scheduled for January
28, 1988.  By the time of the continued hearings of March 17 and 21, 1988,
all parties to the action had been informed for almost one year that the
court would consider the termination of residual parental rights.  At the
continued hearings, the mother had the opportunity to present evidence,
cross-examine witnesses and to make arguments to the court.  In short, the
mother participated vigorously, and opposed the termination of her parental
rights.  Therefore, we find no error in the procedure that the court used to
arrive at its termination order.  See In re H.A., No. 88-199, slip op. at 6
(Vt. Jan. 26, 1990); In re J.R.,     Vt.    ,    , 570 A.2d 154, 160-61
(1989).
 
     The findings which formed the basis for the original determination that
a child was in need of care and supervision must be proven only at the
original merits hearing, and are not required in a disposition or modifi-
cation hearing to terminate parental rights.  In re C.L. and H.L.,     Vt.
  ,    , 563 A.2d 241, 247 (1989).
 
     The juvenile court must determine on the facts of each case whether the
treatment of siblings is probative of neglect or abuse of a juvenile under
the court's consideration.  In re D.P., 147 Vt. 26, 30,