Opinion ID: 2011173
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The child's need for continuity of care.

Text: Section 16-2353(b)(1) requires the court, in determining whether to terminate parental rights, to consider the child's need for continuity of care and caretakers and for timely integration into a stable and permanent home.... It is undisputed, and the trial judge found, that M.D., Jr. is fully integrated into L.L.'s stable adoptive home, at which he has lived more than half of his life. When M.D., Jr. resided with his parents during the first seven months of his life, on the other hand, the situation was unstable, if not chaotic. He was sometimes left by his father in the care of his cocaine-addicted mother, who in turn left him with an unwilling caretaker. [22] Visitation by both parents has since been sporadic. The judge's evidentiary findings lend no support to her apparent conclusion, which we view as a speculative one, that M.D., Jr. could find stability with his father in the foreseeable future.