Opinion ID: 1437603
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Continuity of Care and Timely Integration Into a Permanent Home

Text: In considering this first factor, the trial court determined that the child could not receive continuity and stability from her parents because of her medical condition and the parents' social and economic circumstances. Specifically, the trial court recounted that the parents are unemployed, live in a homeless shelter, and have a history of illegal drug use. The court observed that the mother has eight additional children, two of whom live with her, and therefore projected that the child's needs would place an even greater strain on an already overburdened family unit. The court was also of the view that the child was in a stable environment at HSC and that future planning for her foster care or adoption would assure her stability. The mother provided the only evidence concerning the family's home environment in New York. The government did not obtain a home study. According to the mother's testimony, she and the father, who had a seventeen-year relationship, had stopped using drugs at least since April, 1991, and both were in a methadone maintenance program. Although they were unemployed and lived with their two children in a family shelter, their home consisted of a living room, dining room, two bedrooms, and bath. Social workers were involved in assisting them in New York. The mother had inquired and expected the social workers' assistance if the child were placed with them. Based on these facts, we question the trial court's apparent conclusion that it had been clearly and convincingly demonstrated that the family will be unable, within a reasonable time, to provide continuity and stability, especially where, as here, the only readily available alternative is continued institutional care. [7] In considering the first criterion, the trial court also observed that S.E.L. had presented no evidence of a comprehensive plan to insure that [the child] would receive continuity and stability of care, caretakers, and home environment. The father argues that the burden is upon the moving party in a TPR proceeding, and therefore, the child's parents are not required to present such a plan at the hearing in order to defeat the motion. The moving party has the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that termination of parental rights is in the child's best interests. A.B.E., supra, 564 A.2d at 755. The father's position seems to be that, in light of the evidence presented by the moving party, the parents had no obligation to offer evidence to refute any claim of the movant that the parents could not provide continuity of care and stability for the child. On review, our concern is with whether there is sufficient record evidence such that the possibility of an erroneous judgment does not lie in equipoise between the two sides. K.A., supra, 484 A.2d at 996. We can dispose of the case with that as our focus, rather than focusing upon whether there was sufficient evidence to require appellants to offer evidence to meet it. Examining the record in that light, the evidence relevant to the first criterion does not weigh clearly and convincingly in favor of termination of parental rights. There was no evidence to refute the mother's testimony as to her long-term relationship with the father, the parents' care for the children who resided with them, the parents' involvement with social services workers in New York, the adequacy of their living quarters, and their willingness, with some assistance, to assume the care of the child. [8] While there was evidence that the parents had substance abuse problems in the past, the trial court found as fact that both the mother and father were in a drug treatment program. The evidence showed that the mother had started the training necessary to assume the child's care and that there were no impediments to her caring for the child if she completed the training. While this gesture might be viewed as too little, too late under some circumstances, weighed with the other evidence, including that the child remains confined to a hospital with no foreseeable prospects for an adoptive or foster home placement, it cannot be said that the child's need for continuity of care will be better served by termination of parental rights. The trial court found specifically that the child had no prospects for adoption in the near future and that she may fall within the low end of the adoptability scale. Therefore, there appears to be no substantial good to be achieved for the child by termination of parental rights at a time when the parents have been in drug treatment for some time, have a home, have availed themselves of social services in their home state, have started the special training needed for the child's care, and have expressed their desire to have their child with them. See A.B.E., supra, 564 A.2d at 757. The termination of parental rights would not assure continuity or stability of care for the child. Rather, it would place her in a situation in which she no longer has a mother and a father, with no early prospect for adoption.