Opinion ID: 2360372
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Concurrent Permanency Plan

Text: The county DSS may consider implementation of a concurrent permanency plan, which authorizes a trial judge to expedite the adoption process for a child awaiting a permanent home. [13] DSS is encouraged to execute a concurrent permanency plan that provides a variety of proposals that would secure a permanent and secure home for a CINA. [14] In 1998, Maryland began to implement Congress's Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Act), a comprehensive plan, enacted to facilitate adoption of children in foster care. [15] See Pub.L. No. 105-89, 111 Stat. 2115 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. § 1305 note, noting that reasonable efforts shall be made to preserve and reunify children with their families while concurrently advancing reasonable efforts toward placing a child for adoption). The State's failure to adopt the Act would have resulted in the loss of federal funding. As anticipated, implementation of the Act resulted in fiscal incentives. [16] The purpose of the Act was to streamline the foster care placement process and provide permanent homes for children in foster care, by expediting permanency planning hearings and TPR proceedings. Patton, supra note 15, at 174. Further, the presumption of the Act is that if reunification efforts fail the preferred result is adoption. Id. When the Maryland Legislature adopted the federal Act there was no discussion of whether expediting the termination of a parent's rights would be in the best interest of a child. The main focus of the Act was to accelerate the placement of foster children in adoptive homes. The relative pros and cons of concurrent permanency planning were neither discussed nor analyzed before the Act was adopted by the Legislature. The passage of the bill amended several sections of the Family Law Article, including § 5-525(b), which states that DSS shall establish a goal that facilitates reunification while concurrently generating and executing a concurrent permanency plan. Commentators, Patton and Pellman, have criticized concurrent permanency planning on the grounds that it is severally flawed for a number of reasons. First, one may question whether termination of parental rights was required in a significant number of cases because: (1) the expedited decision to terminate parental rights is often made in six months, and sometimes without the necessity of providing family rehabilitation and reunification; (2) necessary social services are often not readily available so while the termination clock ticks away, little reunification is possible; (3) . . . [and] (4) [DSS workers and legal counsel for the families are overloaded with work]; (5) the ultimate fact-finder, juvenile dependency judges, have only a few minutes per case to determine the fate of families . . . . Patton, supra, at 192. Although concurrent permanency planning is authorized in Maryland, we note that the practice of having such concurrent plans that provide for reunification or family placement and adoption should be scrutinized carefully by the court. It is important, however, to distinguish between contingency permanency planning and concurrent permanency plans. The former looks to reunification with parents or placement with family members while permitting the DSS to begin making contingency plans for adoption or other long-term care arrangements in the event the desired reunification or family placement proves not feasible or in the children's best interest. Indeed, in some cases, that may be the most prudent thing to do, so that if, when the permanency plan is next reviewed by the court, the court concludes that adoption or other long-term arrangement is appropriate, that goal can be achieved more expeditiously  some of the groundwork will already have been done. The statute clearly allows for such contingency planning. See § 5-525(d)(1)-(4), supra. The problem with concurrent permanency plans that are diametrically inconsistent is that they give DSS (and the parents) no real guidance and can lead to arbitrary decision-making on the part of DSS. If the court approves a permanency plan that calls for reunification or family placement, that should be the paramount goal. It should not share the spotlight with a completely inconsistent court-approved goal of terminating parental rights, especially when the inconsistent plan calls for a TPR petition to be filed before the next scheduled court review of the permanency plan. The objective of contingency planning can be achieved without a Janus-type order. When a permanency plan for adoption, whether with a concurrent goal of reunification or adoption alone, is ordered, the statute requires the filing of a TPR petition: (g) In the case of a child for whom the court determines that the plan should be changed to adoption . . . the court shall: (1) Order the local department to file a petition for guardianship in accordance with Title 5, Subtitle 3 of the Family Law Article within 30 days or, if the local department does not support the plan, within 60 days; and (2) Schedule a TPR hearing instead of the next 6-month review hearing. Section 3-823(g) (emphasis added). A natural parent's or guardian's rights are terminated as a result of an adoption. [17] See §§ 5-312 and 5-313 of the Family Law Article. A child may not be adopted unless the natural parents or legal guardian consents (and if the child is at least 10 years old, the child's consent) or a judicial proceeding terminates parental rights. Maryland Code (1999, 2004 Repl, Vol.), § 5-311(a) of the Family Law Article. [18] If a court terminates a parent's rights for adoption or guardianship purposes, it does so only if it finds by clear and convincing evidence that it is in the best interest of the child involved. [19] Section 5-313(a) of the Family Law Article. See Carroll County Dep't of Social Svs. v. Edelmann, 320 Md. 150, 176, 577 A.2d 14, 26 (1990) ([A] circuit court has no authority to terminate a parental relationship other than through a decree of adoption or guardianship[.]).