Opinion ID: 1788353
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure of reasonable efforts to correct conditions leading to out-of-home placement.

Text: The district court also found that termination of parental rights was appropriate based on the failure of reasonable efforts to correct the conditions leading to the out-of-home placement under Minn. Stat. § 260C.301, subd. 1(b)(5). The district court concluded that there is nothing the State can do to foster reunification of [appellant] with his children[] due to his own action of becoming incarcerated    and his failure to maintain any type of meaningful relationship with the children. The court of appeals concluded that termination under subdivision 1(b)(5) was erroneous because the county did not provide any services to appellant. Implicit in the court of appeals' analysis is the conclusion that the county must provide or attempt to provide a case plan to parents who have shown but minimal interest or involvement with their children or the CHIPS proceeding. We reject this conclusion. Such a requirement would put an impossible burden on counties to provide services to a parent who has chosen not to respond to a CHIPS petition despite being given the opportunity to do so and would force counties to attempt to reunify children with a parent who has little interest in reunification. While subdivision 1(b)(5) does not expressly excuse the failure to make reasonable efforts based on futility, reasonable efforts, by definition, does not include efforts that would be futile. As the district court correctly noted, nothing in state law required the county to facilitate contact between appellant and the children to assist appellant in establishing a relationship with the children. The purpose of the child-protection laws is not to create relationships between children and their biological parents where none previously existed but rather to preserve existing relationships where reunification in the foreseeable future is possible and such relationships are in the children's best interests. See Minn.Stat. § 260C.001, subd. 3 (2002) (indicating that purpose of laws relating to termination of parental rights is to secure permanent placement for children where child cannot be reunited with parents in a safe and permanent home). We therefore conclude that the district court did not err in concluding that reasonable efforts had failed to correct the conditions leading to the out-of-home placement under Minn.Stat. § 260C.301, subd. 1(b)(5).