Opinion ID: 1997862
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Biological Parents' Relationship With A.R.

Text: During the period that A.R. was living with the Dents, he received occasional visits from his mother. These visits apparently upset him, and there was testimony that he regressed in his behavior in their wake and that he reverted to bed-wetting. At the time of the hearing, the mother was living in a shelter in New York City. She presented no evidence and has not joined this appeal. The father contacted one of the social workers by telephone in the spring of 1992 [3] and expressed interest in visiting A.R. Neither he nor the social worker followed up on the contact, and it appears that the father was again incarcerated soon thereafter. The father next contacted DHS in June 1994, a few days before the hearing on the motion to terminate parental rights. Once again, the father expressed the hope that he could visit his son. The social worker declined to arrange a visit. She explained her refusal by claiming that contact with the father would have upset A.R. because he had been moved to the home of the Harris family only a short time earlier. The social worker also indicated that she wished to defer a decision on the proposed visit until after the TPR motion had been decided.