Opinion ID: 6348794
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: OCS’s Further Involvement With Mona

Text: The two children were returned to Ruth’s care in late 2017 or early 2018. A second OCS caseworker formalized a family contact plan that allowed Mona to visit the children three times a week. Ruth supervised the visits at first, but she later told Mona to schedule them with OCS. Ruth again asked to have the children removed from her home because of Mona’s volatility and the children’s misbehavior following her visits. OCS placed the children in another home temporarily. Anders was returned to Ruth’s home after about a month, but Ruth felt she could not safely take care of both children because they fought constantly. Vera was placed with a foster parent, Lily, in another village. Mona participated in an outpatient substance abuse program early in 2018 and believed she had completed that program, though an OCS caseworker later testified that Mona told her she left early. In the spring of 2018 Mona visited the emergency room after overdosing on tramadol. At a follow-up visit she said she used tramadol because of the stress caused by OCS’s removal of her children, and she said she worried that healthcare providers were making it more difficult for her to get her children back. That summer Vera traveled to South Dakota with Lily. Mona moved for a visitation review hearing, asking the court to grant her unsupervised visits with Anders and allow her to see Vera in South Dakota. The court denied these requests but encouraged OCS to work toward unsupervised visits with Anders and to plan a long visit with Vera upon her return to Alaska. A third OCS worker created a new case plan in September. The plan required Mona to volunteer for school-related activities, participate in traditional cultural activities with her children, and engage in formal counseling as needed. In April 2019 an OCS worker called Mona to schedule a case-planning meeting and offered her a cab -6- 7598 voucher. Mona missed the meeting and did not answer a follow-up call; she called back later that day but did not leave a message when no one answered. In May a fourth caseworker assumed responsibility for Mona’s case. Mona left this caseworker a message asking for an appointment to create a case plan. The caseworker testified that she scheduled an appointment for later in the month and offered Mona cab fare, but she could not recall whether the meeting occurred. Lily took Vera to South Dakota again in summer 2019. OCS coordinated a trip for Mona to visit Vera there that summer and provided her with a travel itinerary. In June OCS also gave Mona applications for three residential treatment facilities in Anchorage and Fairbanks. When the caseworker asked Mona how she planned to keep her children safe from Earl given his sex-offender status, Mona became emotional; she told the caseworker she was pregnant with Earl’s child and would not put the father of her child out of the house. In July OCS updated the family contact plan due to complaints from both Ruth and Lily about Mona’s behavior. Visits with Anders were no longer to take place at Ruth’s home, and limits were placed on Mona’s contact with Lily. Mona completed another substance abuse assessment, but without the behavioral component that OCS believed should be included. In late 2019 Mona attended residential treatment in Bethel for three weeks but was medivaced to Anchorage with heart problems and did not complete the program. In November 2019 she gave birth to another child, who remained with her as of the time of trial. In December the caseworker met with Mona and created a case plan requiring her to undergo behavioral health and substance abuse assessments, complete a psychological evaluation, and find housing apart from Earl. But Mona refused to sign -7- 7598 the case plan or a release of information. OCS nonetheless arranged for her to have a psychological evaluation in Anchorage, including booking flights and providing cab vouchers, and it sent her the itinerary a little over a week in advance. Mona did not respond and the assessment did not occur; Mona contends on appeal that she never agreed to it. Also at this meeting Mona asked that OCS set up a urinalysis schedule for her.5 Mona and her attorney met with the caseworker in January 2020. In response to the caseworker’s questions, Mona denied knowing any details of Earl’s criminal history. OCS invited her to a meeting to discuss medications that had been prescribed for Anders to help with his behavior, but she did not attend, later telling OCS she had lost her bus pass. In February Mona asked the court to review its disposition order. She said she had been sober for over a year, and although she hoped to find independent housing, “the reality of housing in the region means that people can wait for years to obtain their own housing.” She also argued that an “outright ban on contact” between Earl and the children was not feasible. In March Mona asked the court to review the limits on visitation; OCS had just prohibited visits with Anders at school after Mona visited one day without prior authorization and he threw a tantrum. In April OCS filed a petition to terminate Mona’s and Jared’s parental rights. In April the court also held a permanency hearing and approved OCS’s goal of adoption, and it denied Mona’s motions to review the disposition order and visitation. The court also instructed OCS to help Mona find new housing. In response OCS contacted the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to determine whether Mona was 5 In March and April of 2020, OCS set up urinalyses for Mona pursuant to this request; she took about ten tests and all were negative. -8- 7598 eligible to apply for its services. The caseworker filled out part of an application, highlighted the sections Mona needed to complete, and dropped the packet off for her; Mona picked the packet up but the superior court found that she did not complete it, which the court attributed to her reluctance to leave Earl. In May Mona asked OCS whether it could find alternative placement for Vera in Alaska for the summer rather than allowing Lily take her to South Dakota again. OCS contacted Mona’s grandmother, but placement with her was not possible because of a household member’s disqualifying criminal history. OCS continued to reach out to Mona’s family members based on a list Mona provided, but it was unable to find Vera a suitable placement, and it again allowed her to spend the summer in South Dakota with Lily. OCS arranged to fly Mona to Bethel for a visit during Vera’s stopover on the way out of state. Mona was already in Bethel, however, because she had taken her baby to the emergency room there. She nonetheless missed the scheduled visit with Vera. She then attempted to intercept Lily and Vera at the airport before they boarded the plane, but OCS refused to allow the meeting to occur because it could not arrange appropriate supervision at the last minute and Mona was in a “very emotional” state. In June 2020 another caseworker was assigned to the case. He created a new case plan, which Mona refused to sign. The plan required her to obtain a psychological evaluation, complete another parenting class, participate in another substance abuse assessment and follow its recommendations, undergo random urinalysis testing, and end the children’s contact with known sexual offenders. By November the case was reassigned to one of the caseworkers who had had it before. This caseworker had difficulty contacting Mona about visits and eventually, at Mona’s request, communicated with her only through her attorney. In February 2021 OCS learned that Vera had been diagnosed with an emotional disorder -9- 7598 and asked Mona to consent to medication. Mona refused; the caseworker responded by asking her to resume case planning and undergo a behavioral health assessment. The next day she sent Mona a letter encouraging her to reengage with OCS.