IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 23-0270

Filed June 7, 2023

IN THE INTEREST OF J.W. and M.W.,

Minor Children,

A.L., Mother,

Appellant.

________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, David Staudt, 

Judge.

A mother appeals an order terminating her parental rights to two children. 

AFFIRMED.

Andrew C. Abbott of Abbott Law Office, P.C., Waterloo, for appellant 

mother.

Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Mary A. Triick, Assistant Attorney 

General, for appellee State.

Kelly Jo Smith of the Juvenile Public Defender’s Office, Waterloo, attorney 

and guardian ad litem for minor child.

Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Ahlers and Badding, JJ.
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VAITHESWARAN, Presiding Judge.

A mother appeals an order terminating her parental rights to twins, born in 

2021. She putatively challenges the evidence supporting the grounds for 

termination cited by the district court. She also contends the district court should 

not have terminated her parental rights based on the fact that a relative had 

custody of the children and based on the claimed bond she shared with them.

The district court terminated the mother’s parental rights pursuant to Iowa 

Code section 232.116(1)(e) and (h) (2022). The mother appears to argue that she 

maintained significant and meaningful contact with the children, precluding 

termination under section 232.116(1)(e). She does not challenge the evidence 

supporting termination under Iowa Code section 232.116(1)(h), which requires 

proof of several elements including proof a child cannot be returned to parental 

custody. Accordingly, we could affirm on the unchallenged ground. See In re P.L., 

778 N.W.2d 33, 40 (Iowa 2010) (finding it unnecessary to discuss the grounds for 

termination where the father did not challenge them). We elect to address the 

evidence supporting termination under the challenged ground. 

The mother tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamine when she 

delivered the twins. The children were discharged from the hospital to the home 

of their maternal grandmother, where the mother had been living. The mother 

initially followed a safety plan implemented by the Iowa Department of Health and 

Human Services. Approximately two months after the children’s birth, the 

grandparents reported that the mother left the home and was found at another 

home with bruises all over her face. The grandparents surmised she had been 

beaten. Later the same day, the mother came to the grandparents’ home in a state 
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of heightened anxiety and said she planned to leave the State with the children. 

Police were called. They took her to a hospital after she threatened to harm 

herself.

The department applied to have the children temporarily removed. The 

district court granted the application. The parents stipulated to continued 

temporary removal of the children as well as their adjudication as children in need 

of assistance. Care, custody, and control of the children was placed with the 

grandparents.

The mother, who was on parole, regularly met with her parole officer and, 

for a period of time, tested negative for illicit drugs. Six months after the children’s 

birth, she stopped visiting them despite “the opportunity to be with them on a daily 

basis.” Although she briefly reinitiated contact, she curtailed visits and other 

reunification services in mid-July 2022, following the issuance of an arrest warrant

which, according to the department, was for “[v]iolations of her probation.” While 

she attended the children’s one-year birthday party in November 2022, she did not 

appear at the termination hearing the next month. Her attorney informed the court 

he had not had any contact with her for five months. 

The mother was arrested and incarcerated before the termination order was 

filed. Shortly thereafter, the State applied to have the children removed from the 

grandparents’ custody after marijuana and guns were found in their home. 

Approximately one hour before filing the termination order, the district court 

transferred care, custody, and control of the children to the department for 

placement in foster care.
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On our de novo review of the record, we conclude the mother did not have 

significant and meaningful contact with the children. See Iowa Code 

§ 232.116(1)(e)(3) (“‘[S]ignificant and meaningful contact’ includes but is not 

limited to the affirmative assumption by the parents of the duties encompassed by 

the role of being a parent. This affirmative duty, in addition to financial obligations, 

requires continued interest in the child, a genuine effort to complete the 

responsibilities prescribed in the case permanency plan, a genuine effort to 

maintain communication with the child, and requires that the parents establish and 

maintain a place of importance in the child’s life.”); In re W.T., 967 N.W.2d 315, 

323 (Iowa 2021) (finding clear and convincing evidence to support termination 

under Iowa Code section 232.116(1)(e) where the father “had ample opportunity 

to meet with and participate in [the child’s] life during the relevant six-month period

. . . [but] made very little effort to become part of [the child’s] life”).

We turn to the “relative custody” and parent-child bond exceptions to 

termination. See Iowa Code § 232.116(3)(a), (c). Although the grandparents had 

custody of the children at the time of the termination hearing, the mother’s absence 

from the children’s lives for the six months preceding the termination hearing 

served as grounds for declining to invoke the relative exception, especially in light 

of the department’s recommendation to proceed with termination. See In re A.S.,

906 N.W.2d 467, 476-77 (Iowa 2018) (giving weight to the testimony of the 

department case manager). As for the mother’s claimed bond with the children, 

she made scant effort to foster the relationship in the six months preceding the 

termination hearing. For these reasons, the court appropriately declined to invoke 

the exceptions.
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We affirm the termination of the mother’s parental rights to the children.

AFFIRMED.