Opinion ID: 1041539
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ashanti Is Taken Into OCS’s Custody.

Text: Chloe began using marijuana and alcohol in her pre-teen years, and by age 18 she was regularly using marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, and hallucinogens. She spent most of her youth in foster care, in the custody of OCS and the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). She was institutionalized multiple times as a minor because of her mental health and substance abuse issues, and by the time she reached adulthood she had been prescribed antidepressant and antipsychotic medications; the record indicates that she may suffer from bipolar disorder and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). In May 2009, 18-year-old Chloe gave birth to Ashanti. While pregnant, Chloe used cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana. When Ashanti was seven weeks old, Chloe asked Autumn P. — a woman who had acted as Chloe’s foster mother when Chloe was a teenager — to care for the baby while Chloe tended to pressing family matters. This arrangement was originally to be for a matter of days, but when Chloe decided to enter a substance abuse treatment program Autumn agreed to continue caring for Ashanti. The record does not indicate that Chloe entered treatment; nonetheless, Ashanti remained in -3- 6828 Autumn’s care. At the time, Autumn, a licensed DJJ foster parent, was also caring for several teenage foster children and her own young daughter. While Autumn was caring for Ashanti, Chloe sometimes took the child. During such times OCS received reports concerning Ashanti’s safety. OCS investigated reports concerning Chloe’s substance abuse, mental health, suicide attempts, and exposure of Ashanti to unsafe situations. In August 2010, OCS took emergency custody of Ashanti after Chloe was arrested and incarcerated following a violent altercation. The trial court adjudicated Ashanti a child in need of aid and committed her to OCS’s temporary custody. OCS placed Ashanti with Autumn, who had been the child’s main caregiver for more than a year. B. Chloe Declines To Participate In Mental Health Services; She Engages, Unsuccessfully, In Substance Abuse Treatment. Chloe’s OCS case plan called for her to participate in a substance abuse assessment and treatment, urinalysis testing, a mental health evaluation, parenting classes, and visitation with Ashanti, and it required her to acquire stable housing and employment. According to social worker Jamie Kaufman-Bacher, who was responsible for the case from April through September 2010, Chloe was not concerned about her use of substances. She agreed to participate in substance abuse treatment, but she “outright refused” to participate in mental health services. Kaufman-Bacher decided to focus her initial efforts on Chloe’s substance abuse rather than her mental health issues. KaufmanBacher testified that this decision was based on several factors: Chloe refused to participate in a mental health assessment; it is not possible to force an unwilling client to accept mental health treatment; substance abuse was an important issue that Chloe was willing to work on; and Kaufman-Bacher did not want to overwhelm Chloe by involving her in too many services at once. -4- 6828 While drafting the case plan, Kaufman-Bacher consulted an OCS social worker who had worked with Chloe’s family when Chloe was a minor. That worker told Kaufman-Bacher that Chloe might have fetal alcohol syndrome. Kaufman-Bacher, who was trained in FAS, testified that social workers and service providers interact in a particular way with FAS clients, and she included the information about Chloe’s possible FAS status in her referral for Chloe to participate in a substance abuse assessment. Kaufman-Bacher transferred the case to social worker Toi Registe in September 2010. At that time, Chloe had declined to fill out paperwork that was required for her to participate in a substance abuse assessment through the Salvation Army Clitheroe Center, and the assessment had been rescheduled. Registe, who had the case from September 2010 through the termination trial, met with Chloe monthly.3 At their first meeting Registe and Chloe discussed Chloe’s need to participate in substance abuse and mental health services. Chloe informed Registe that she would not participate in the mental health component of her case plan, but she agreed to participate in substance abuse services. Registe, like Kaufman-Bacher, felt that the best course was to focus initially on Chloe’s substance abuse issues. Registe testified that she was aware of Chloe’s possible FAS status. She testified that she routinely helps FAS clients fill out referral forms in her office, avoids imposing too many case plan components on them at any point in time, writes reminder notes for them, and provides them with reminder phone calls. As to Chloe, Registe testified that “there were many . . . times that whatever referral we were doing, we did 3 Registe testified that she had difficulty meeting with Chloe because Chloe missed appointments and did not show up when the appointments were rescheduled. Registe also testified that she often met with Chloe before or after Chloe’s scheduled visits with Ashanti at the OCS office. -5- 6828 together. I would remind [her] of, you know, court reviews, her family contact, [and] assessments. I’ve even offered to cab her to those.” In October 2010 Chloe participated in a substance abuse assessment through Clitheroe; the recommendation was for outpatient treatment. Chloe did not follow through with the referral, nor did she participate in urinalysis to which both Kaufman-Bacher and Registe had referred her, despite the social workers’ emphasis on the importance of her participation and their explanation that missed urinalysis tests are considered positive by OCS.4 When Chloe’s substance abuse assessment expired in February 2011 Registe referred her to a case management and substance abuse program at Alaska Women’s Resource Center. Chloe’s case manager at that program scheduled weekly meetings with Chloe.5 Chloe missed numerous scheduled substance abuse assessments at AWRC before finally completing an assessment on April 18, 2011, when Registe arranged for a taxi to take her to the assessment.6 Shortly before this assessment, on April 12, 2011, Chloe gave birth to her second daughter, Samara C., who quickly joined Ashanti in OCS’s custody. Also at 4 Over the course of the case Chloe was referred to participate in urinalysis testing several times. She missed many more scheduled tests than she completed, and every urinalysis she completed tested positive. Registe testified that Chloe missed 74 tests and tested positive 16 times. Chloe explained her reluctance to participate in urinalysis by stating, “I didn’t agree with them at times and at times I just didn’t go.” 5 Registe testified that the AWRC case manager’s role was similar to any case manager’s, which was “to help [Chloe] get any necessary assessments, treatment, any other services that [Chloe] needed,” but the advantage of AWRC was that it provided a case manager to meet with Chloe every week. 6 Registe testified that normally AWRC only allows three missed appointments before terminating a client from the program but that they made an exception for Chloe, due to Registe’s continual interactions with Chloe’s AWRC case manager. -6- 6828 about this time, Chloe tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamine. She admitted using marijuana but denied knowingly using methamphetamine, speculating that her marijuana may have been laced with it. Chloe’s assessment recommended medium-intensity residential treatment. She enrolled in a program at Stepping Stones, where OCS planned to have Samara placed with her after a 30-day orientation period, but Chloe left the program after only a few days, because, according to Registe, “[s]he did not like the people up in her business.”7 After Registe and Chloe’s AWRC case manager intervened, Stepping Stones agreed to allow Chloe to rejoin the program, but this time she left before completing the intake process. Chloe’s case managers continued to investigate treatment programs, but with little success other than to have Chloe’s name added to months-long waiting lists for several programs. Chloe, who continued to use drugs, was dismissed from the AWRC program in May 2011 after not completing papers to allow her to be considered for additional treatment programs. On June 1, 2011, on a referral from OCS, Chloe participated in another substance abuse assessment at Clitheroe. The assessor recommended a 90-to-120-day residential treatment program, to be followed by 24 weeks of outpatient treatment, and also recommended that Chloe follow up with a mental health provider. Registe attempted to have Chloe admitted to a dual-diagnosis treatment program at the Ernie Turner Center, but her criminal history rendered her ineligible for that program. Registe 7 The Stepping Stones program included a parenting class component. Parenting classes were required by Chloe’s case plan. Registe testified that before Chloe’s admission to Stepping Stones, Registe had referred her to a hands-on parenting class but that Chloe had declined to participate. -7- 6828 helped Chloe apply to a dual-diagnosis program at Clitheroe, where she was placed on a waiting list. Around this time, Chloe agreed to participate in a mental health assessment. Registe referred Chloe for an assessment at Southcentral Foundation, which she completed on June 30, 2011. Chloe’s diagnoses included posttraumatic stress disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and mood disorder. The assessor recommended that Chloe participate in intensive one-on-one therapy, which, according to Registe, Chloe did “on and off for maybe a month or a month and a half.” Registe offered to help Chloe obtain further mental health services but Chloe refused her offer. In August 2011, when Chloe was about to begin treatment at Clitheroe, she was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment for an incident in which she caused a car accident. One of her resulting probation conditions was to complete a substance abuse treatment program. On September 13, 2011, Chloe entered the dual-diagnosis program at Clitheroe. She was quickly placed on a behavior contract because of inappropriate language, boundary violations, and missing or being late to treatment sessions. She was discharged from the program after a few weeks. By February 2012, when the termination trial was held, Chloe was in the process of completing another substance abuse assessment. She began outpatient treatment but participated sporadically and stopped attending in August 2012 after being arrested for using drugs and failing to fulfill her probation requirements. She was scheduled to participate in another substance abuse assessment in November 2012, but she did not show up. -8- 6828 C. The Trial Court Terminates Chloe’s Parental Rights To Ashanti, But Employs An Incorrect Standard In Making A Required Finding. In August 2011 OCS filed a petition to terminate Chloe’s parental rights to Ashanti. Trial was held in February 2012. At the close of the trial the trial court judge, Judge Michalski, made findings on the record that Ashanti was a child in need of aid, Chloe had not remedied conditions that endangered Ashanti, and termination of Chloe’s parental rights was in Ashanti’s best interests. The trial court also found — by an incorrect standard of proof — that OCS had made active efforts to prevent the family’s breakup.8 Chloe appealed, arguing in part that the trial court’s order was defective because the court used an incorrect standard of proof in its decision. After briefing had begun the parties agreed that the appeal should be remanded to allow the trial court to determine the active-efforts issue under the correct standard of proof. We remanded the case to the trial court for the limited purpose of determining, by the correct standard of proof, whether OCS made active efforts to reunify the family. D. On Remand The Trial Court Finds, By Clear And Convincing Evidence, That OCS Made Active Efforts To Reunify Chloe With Ashanti. Since issuing his decision Judge Michalski had retired, and the case was reassigned to Judge Easter. On January 11, 2013, Judge Easter held an evidentiary hearing “limited for the purpose of the state showing or attempting to show by clear and convincing evidence that they made active efforts to reunify the family.” Social workers Kaufman-Bacher and Registe testified at the hearing, as did Chloe. 8 CINA Rule 18(c)(2)(B) requires this finding to be made by clear and convincing evidence, but the trial court made the finding by a preponderance of evidence. -9- 6828 At the close of the hearing the trial court found, by clear and convincing evidence, that OCS had made active but unsuccessful efforts to reunify the family. According to the trial court the case was not close; the court found that OCS’s efforts had been “pretty extraordinary,” and it stated “the evidence is overwhelming that the state by clear and convincing evidence made active efforts to reunify this family.” The trial court found that OCS’s initial focus on Chloe’s substance abuse was “clearly indicated . . . because of the mother’s resistance to address the mental health issues at that time.” It noted with approval OCS’s intent to keep Chloe’s case plan simple so as not to overwhelm her. The trial court also found that OCS “went above and beyond the call of duty” in providing visitation between Chloe and Ashanti. The court concluded: Quite frankly, I don’t know what more the department could’ve done in this case. And as I said, I think they went beyond the call of duty in trying desperately to get [Chloe] some help so that she could be reunified with [Ashanti] and unfortunately [Chloe] just simply didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that were given to her. There’s only so much you can do unless a person wants to help themselves and for whatever reason, [Chloe] just simply didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that the department gave her such that she could be reunified with her daughter. The appeal then returned to this court.