Opinion ID: 2224546
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Termination Issue.

Text: The State sought termination by way of Iowa Code section 232.116(1)(g). That section provides in relevant part: 232.116 Grounds for termination. 1. Except as provided in subsection 3, the court may order the termination of both the parental rights with respect to a child and the relationship between the parent and the child on any of the following grounds: .... g. The court finds that all of the following have occurred: (1) The child is three years of age or younger. (2) The child has been adjudicated a child in need of assistance pursuant to section 232.96. (3) The custody of the child has been transferred from the child's parents for placement pursuant to section 232.102 for at least six months of the last twelve months, or for the last six consecutive months and any trial period at home has been less than thirty days. (4) There is clear and convincing evidence that the child cannot be returned to the custody of the child's parents as provided in section 232.102 at the present time. Here there is no dispute as to proof of the first three elements. As is usually the case, the contested element is the last: whether there is proof by clear and convincing evidence that at the present time the child cannot be returned to the custody of her parents as provided in section 232.102. Our focus is on section 232.102(5), which pertinently provides: 232.102 Transfer of legal custody of child and placement. .... 5. Whenever possible the court should permit the child to remain at home with the child's parent, guardian, or custodian. Custody of the child should not be transferred unless the court finds there is clear and convincing evidence that: .... b. The child cannot be protected from some harm which would justify the adjudication of the child as a child in need of assistance and an adequate placement is available. The definitional grounds under which the juvenile court adjudicated Melissa a child in need of assistance are found in section 232.2(6)(b), (c), and (n): 6.  Child in need of assistance means an unmarried child: .... b. Whose parent, guardian, other custodian, or other member of the household in which the child resides has physically abused or neglected the child, or is imminently likely to abuse or neglect the child. c. Who has suffered or is imminently likely to suffer harmful effects as a result of either of the following: (1) Mental injury caused by the acts of the child's parent, guardian, or custodian. (2) The failure of the child's parent, guardian, custodian, or other member of the household in which the child resides to exercise a reasonable degree of care in supervising the child. .... n. Whose parent's or guardian's mental capacity or condition, imprisonment, or drug or alcohol abuse results in the child not receiving adequate care. The juvenile court found by clear and convincing evidence that the definitional grounds in section 232.2(6)(b), (c), and (n) still existed and that Melissa could not be protected from such harm if she were returned to her parents. On that basis, the court terminated the parental rights of both parents. Because Tom did not seek further review, we concern ourselves only with whether the juvenile court correctly terminated Jeannie's parental rights. For reasons that follow, we think there is clear and convincing evidence that Melissa cannot safely be returned to Jeannie. The record is replete with evidence of Tom's inability to maintain sobriety and be an effective parent. There have been repeated instances of physical and verbal abuse of Jeannie when Tom was intoxicated. Some of these instances were witnessed by the children in the home. And siblings of Melissa have not escaped Tom's alcohol-induced violence. In April 1990, Tom apparently kicked Tommy in the face. Six stitches were required to close the child's wound. Tom could not recall what had happened because he was too intoxicated to remember. Jeannie had left her children with Tom and his mother, both of whom were drinking at the time. Tom was convicted of assault for this incident and was incarcerated. Jeannie separated from Tom after this incident and was separated at the time of the termination hearing. During this period of separation Jeannie filed a dissolution action. That action was still pending at the time of the termination hearing. Tom has been convicted of eleven other assaults, ten of them involving Jeannie. He has violated a no contact order and for that has been found in contempt of court. During 1990, Tom spent 129 days in jail. When the termination hearing was held he had been out of jail only two weeks. In the two-year period prior to the termination hearing, Tom had not completed any inpatient treatment program for alcohol abuse. The record reflects that Jeannie has also had lapses of responsibility toward the children. For example, in 1989, Jeannie ran over Joshua after he had fallen out of her car. The child suffered a broken pelvis. Joshua was placed in foster care because he needed time to recuperate from his injuries. He was returned home after five weeks of healing. As a result of this incident, Jeannie was convicted of operating a car without a registration and was jailed for this offense. She was also charged with reckless driving. During this same period, the school was reporting that the children had been coming to school late, had bruises on their bodies, and were without shoes. Several other factors favor termination. By the time of the termination hearing, Melissa had been out of the home for two years. During that time Jeannie had a chance to improve her ability to care for Melissa. The record shows that she has failed to do so. From April 1989 through May 1990, Hillcrest Family Services provided in-home therapy for the family. Seventy-four weekly appointments were scheduled. Tom and Jeannie missed or canceled about one-third of them. At the appointments that were kept, a family therapist worked with Tom and Jeannie on parenting skills and relationship issues. The therapist reported that progress was sporadic and there was no follow through with what had been learned. No significant improvement was seen. Hillcrest persisted in attempting to teach the parents parenting skills. Case workers testified this effort failed because of chaos in the home and the parents' unwillingness to apply what they had learned. The counselor who was working with the parents opined that Jeannie would need to undergo a minimum of two to five years of therapy before she would be able to provide for the needs of Melissa. The record also reflects that the parents resisted efforts of the department to help them, and on one occasion they threatened a caseworker with physical harm. For about six weeks in the fall of 1989, the parents participated in a nurturing program offered by the county mental health center. Jeannie attended ten full and two half classes of the fifteen 2-hour sessions. Tom and Jeannie attended only three classes together. While Jeannie apparently learned the parenting skills that were taught, she showed limited ability to carry them out. She admitted that she needed to improve her parenting skills. Yet she made little progress in improving the environment for her children still in the home. From February through May 1990, in-home nurturing classes were provided twice each week. During these sessions, Jeannie was unable to apply the parenting skills she had been taught with regard to the children still in the home. The home environment was chaotic, with the children out of control a good deal of the time. The counselor opined that a lack of nurturing and structure in Jeannie's own family contributed to her limited parenting skills. In June 1990 Jeannie entered an in-patient co-dependency program. At this point the two older children were out of the home and under the care and supervision of the department. The remaining two childrenTommy and Joshuawere placed in foster care so that Jeannie could enter the co-dependency program. Jeannie was required to obtain a suitable residence within thirty days after her release from the co-dependency program so that Tommy and Joshua could be returned to her care. Insteadafter only ten days in treatmentJeannie left the co-dependency program against medical advice and against her caseworker's recommendation. She was gone for approximately a month without informing the department of her whereabouts. The department later learned that she had spent the time in Minnesota with her sister. Before entering the co-dependency program, Jeannie had exercised visitation with Melissa about three times a week. From August 1990 to the date of the termination hearing in January 1991, Jeannie requested four or five visits with Melissa. The department was only able to arrange two of those visits. Some of the blame for the missed visitation therefore belongs to the department because it failed to honor these requests. But that does not detract from the fact that Jeannie, during this period of time, requested few visits with Melissa. At the time of the termination hearing, Jeannie was twenty-eight years old. She was living with her sister-in-law and her sister-in-law's three children. All of Jeannie's children had been out of the home since June 1990. In the winter of 1990, Jeannie worked for about two months. Her only other employment was working in a carnival as a child. She has completed the eleventh grade. Jeannie testified that eventually she wants to try to raise all five children. But her present wish was to try to parent one or two of the children rather than all five. She conceded that before May 1990 she was not willing to take responsibility for the children but that she was willing to do so now. At the time of the termination hearing, Melissa was nearly three years old and had been in foster care about two years. The record reflects that Melissa is thriving in foster care. She had been placed in her current foster home in November 1989 after an incident of abuse by a former foster parent. Melissa is adoptable and can be placed if parental rights are terminated. All of this evidence boils down to one inescapable conclusion: Jeannie is simply incapable of meeting the emotional and physical needs of five children, especially as those children grow older. We think two years is more than enough time for Jeannie to prove her parenting capabilities. Despite numerous services and painstaking patience by the department and the juvenile court, Jeannie has simply not demonstrated an ability to carry out what these services were intended to teach her. We agree with the State that this patience is translating into intolerable hardship for Melissa. Melissa's chance to grow and thrive in a stable, nurturing, and permanent environment is now. We think returning Melissa to Jeannie at this point would expose Melissa to the very harm that required her removal in the first place. Although we have not considered the record supplementations in reaching our decision, we have carefully reviewed them. Had we considered the supplementations, our decision would have been the same.