Opinion ID: 2394433
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Appropriate Standards for Terminating Parental Rights

Text: In seeking to dismantle the statutory construct enacted by the General Assembly, Ms. F. borrows in part from cases involving custody disputes between a parent and a third party and in part from out-of-State TPR cases that are mostly inapposite. We shall turn first to the custody cases and consider their relevance to the issue at hand. The great majority of custody (and visitation) disputes, of course, are between the child's parents, neither of whom, at least since the adoption of our State Equal Rights Amendment (Md. Decl. of Rts., Art. 46), has any preference over the other in that regard. In that setting, the governing standard, here and throughout the country, is and long has been the child's best interest. See McDermott v. Dougherty, 385 Md. 320, 353-55, 869 A.2d 751, 770-71 (2005). Custody and visitation decisions in disputes between the parents are made based on what the court finds to be in the child's best interest. That decision generally lies within the sound discretion of the trial judge and is rarely disturbed on appeal. See Domingues v. Johnson, 323 Md. 486, 492, n. 2, 593 A.2d 1133, 1136, n. 2 (1991). A different element, though not a different standard, comes into play when the dispute is between a parent and a third party, for in that setting, there is a legal preference. In those cases, we have recognized that parents have a fundamental, Constitutionally-based right to raise their children free from undue and unwarranted interference on the part of the State, including its courts. See, most recently, Koshko v. Haining, 398 Md. 404, 921 A.2d 171 (2007); also McDermott v. Dougherty, supra, 385 Md. 320, 869 A.2d 751; Shurupoff v. Vockroth, 372 Md. 639, 814 A.2d 543 (2003); Ross v. Hoffman, 280 Md. 172, 372 A.2d 582 (1977). Even in those cases, however, we have not discarded the best interest of the child standard, but rather have harmonized it with that fundamental right. We have created that harmony by recognizing a substantive presumptiona presumption of law and factthat it is in the best interest of children to remain in the care and custody of their parents. The parental right is not absolute, however. The presumption that protects it may be rebutted upon a showing either that the parent is unfit or that exceptional circumstances exist which would make continued custody with the parent detrimental to the best interest of the child. In McDermott, the Court made clear that, in a parent-third party custody dispute, the initial focus must be on whether the parent is unfit or such exceptional circumstances exist, for, if one or the other is not shown, the presumption applies and there is no need to inquire further as to where the best interest of the child lies. In Koshko, we extended that approach to parent-third party visitation disputes as well. Custody and visitation disputes, even between a parent and a third party, are on a different plane than TPR proceedings. As we pointed out in Shurupoff, [w]e regard TPR proceedings as uniquedifferent in kind and not just in degree. Shurupoff, 372 Md. at 657, 814 A.2d at 554. That, we said, is true for two reasons. First, a TPR judgment does not just allocate access to a child but constitutes a total rescission of the legal relationship between parent and child, and that rescission is generally final. Unlike custody or visitation orders, it is not subject to reconsideration merely upon a showing of changed circumstances on the parent's part. Second, in custody and visitation cases the State is essentially neutral, providing only a judicial forum for resolution of the dispute between two private parties. In TPR cases, the State is a moving party, acting in its capacity as parens patriae. It is seeking to terminate the existing parental relationship and transfer to itself, hopefully for re-transfer to an adoptive family, the parental rights that emanate from that relationship. Nonetheless, our case law has been clear and consistent, that, even in contested adoption and TPR cases (and in permanency plan proceedings that may inevitably lead to a TPR case), where the fundamental right of parents to raise their children stands in the starkest contrast to the State's effort to protect those children from unacceptable neglect or abuse, the best interest of the child remains the ultimate governing standard. [9] Most recently, in In re Karl H., 394 Md. 402, 416, 906 A.2d 898, 906 (2006), involving an attack on a change in a permanency plan from reunification to reunification and adoption, we noted: A State's role in a child's care and protection should take on utmost importance, while a parent's right may not be absolute. A parent's rights may be diminished, ['w]hen there is a conflict between the rights of the parents or legal guardian and those of the child, the child's best interest shall take precedence.' COMAR 07.02.11.07(A). All of those cases recognize and give full appropriate weight to the fundamental right of the parents, as indeed they must, but they all recognize as well that the right of the parents is not absolute and that it must be balanced against the fundamental right and responsibility of the State to protect children, who cannot protect themselves, from abuse and neglect. The point was well made in In re Mark M., supra, 365 Md. at 705-06, 782 A.2d at 343, and confirmed in In re Yve S., supra, 373 Md. at 570, 819 A.2d at 1041: That fundamental interest, however, is not absolute and does not exclude other important considerations. Pursuant to the doctrine of parens patriae, the State of Maryland has an interest in caring for those, such as minors, who cannot care for themselves. We have held that `the best interests of the child may take precedence over the parent's liberty interest in the course of a custody, visitation, or adoption dispute.'. . . . As we stated in In re Adoption/Guardianship No. A91-71A, 334 Md. 538, 640 A.2d 1085 (1994), the child's welfare is `a consideration that is of transcendent importance' when the child might otherwise be in jeopardy. In light of that well-established case law, it is not surprising that the General Assembly, in enacting former FL § 5-313 and current FL § 5-323, has maintained the best interest of the child standard as the overriding statutory criterion in TPR cases. There are, however, three critical elements in the balance that serve to give heightened protection to parental rights in the TPR context. First and foremost, is the implicit substantive presumption that the interest of the child is best served by maintaining the parental relationship, a presumption that may be rebutted only by a showing that the parent is either unfit or that exceptional circumstances exist that would make the continued relationship detrimental to the child's best interest. That presumption, which emanates from parent-third party custody disputes, is not expressly articulated in the statute and, for that reason, is usually not mentioned when discussing the various statutory factors, but it may be necessary as a Constitutional matter and, even if not, it is implicit from the statutory scheme. The notions of unfitness and exceptional circumstances have a different connotation in TPR cases than they do in custody and visitation disputes, however. In a custody case, unfitness means an unfitness to have custody of the child, not an unfitness to remain the child's parent; exceptional circumstances are those that would make parental custody detrimental to the best interest of the child. The deficiencies that may properly lead to a finding of unfitness or exceptional circumstances in a custody case will not necessarily suffice to justify a TPR judgment. For one thing, those deficiencies may be temporary and correctablesufficiently severe to warrant denying custody or visitation at a particular point in time, but with the understanding that the custody or visitation decision is subject to reconsideration upon a showing of changed circumstances. As noted, however, a judgment terminating parental rights, once enrolled, is not subject to discretionary reconsideration based merely on the parent's changed circumstances. See, however, FL §§ 5-326 and 5-327, permitting modification or rescission of a guardianship order under certain limited circumstances. To justify a TPR judgment, therefore, the focus must be on the continued parental relationship, not custody. The facts must demonstrate an unfitness to have a continued parental relationship with the child, or exceptional circumstances that would make a continued parental relationship detrimental to the best interest of the child. The terms are the same, but their meaning and what must be shown are quite different. The second element that serves to protect the parental relationship is that, in a TPR case, the kind of unfitness or exceptional circumstances necessary to rebut the substantive presumption must be established by clear and convincing evidence, not by the mere preponderance standard that applies in custody cases. The State must overcome a much higher substantive burden by a higher standard of proof. Third, and of critical significance, the Legislature has carefully circumscribed the near-boundless discretion that courts have in ordinary custody cases to determine what is in the child's best interest. It has set forth criteria to guide and limit the court in determining the child's best interestthe factors formerly enumerated in FL § 5-313(c) and (d) and now stated in FL § 5-323. Those factors, though couched as considerations in determining whether termination is in the child's best interest, serve also as criteria for determining the kinds of exceptional circumstances that would suffice to rebut the presumption favoring a continued parental relationship and justify termination of that relationship. We agree with Ms. F. that poverty, of itself, can never justify the termination of parental rights. The fundamental right of parents to raise their children is in no way dependent on their affluence and therefore is not diminished by their lack thereof. Nor will homelessness, alone, or physical, mental, or emotional disability, alone, justify such termination. That is not what the statute permits, however. [10] What the statute appropriately looks to is whether the parent is, or within a reasonable time will be, able to care for the child in a way that does not endanger the child's welfare. As former FL § 5-313(c)(1) and current § 5-323(d) make clear, primary consideration must be given to the safety and health of the child. The statute does not permit the State to leave parents in need adrift and then take away their children. The court is required to consider the timeliness, nature, and extent of the services offered by DSS or other support agencies, the social service agreements between DSS and the parents, the extent to which both parties have fulfilled their obligations under those agreements, and whether additional services would be likely to bring about a sufficient and lasting parental adjustment that would allow the child to be returned to the parent. Implicit in that requirement is that a reasonable level of those services, designed to address both the root causes and the effect of the problem, must be offerededucational services, vocational training, assistance in finding suitable housing and employment, teaching basic parental and daily living skills, therapy to deal with illnesses, disorders, addictions, and other disabilities suffered by the parent or the child, counseling designed to restore or strengthen bonding between parent and child, as relevant. Indeed, the requirement is more than implicit. FL § 5-525(d), dealing with foster care and out-of-home placement, explicitly requires DSS to make reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify families and to make it possible for a child to safely return to the child's home. There are some limits, however, to what the State is required to do. The State is not obliged to find employment for the parent, to find and pay for permanent and suitable housing for the family, to bring the parent out of poverty, or to cure or ameliorate any disability that prevents the parent from being able to care for the child. It must provide reasonable assistance in helping the parent to achieve those goals, but its duty to protect the health and safety of the children is not lessened and cannot be cast aside if the parent, despite that assistance, remains unable or unwilling to provide appropriate care. The State is not required to allow children to live permanently on the streets or in temporary shelters, to fend for themselves, to go regularly without proper nourishment, or to grow up in permanent chaos and instability, bouncing from one foster home to another until they reach eighteen and are pushed onto the streets as adults, because their parents, even with reasonable assistance from DSS, continue to exhibit an inability or unwillingness to provide minimally acceptable shelter, sustenance, and support for them. Based upon evidence of the effect that such circumstances have on the child, a court could reasonably find that the child's safety and health of the child is jeopardized. Recognizing that children have a right to reasonable stability in their lives and that permanent foster care is generally not a preferred option, the law requires, with exceptions not applicable here, that DSS file a TPR petition if the child has been in an out-of-home placement for 15 of the most recent 22 months. See FL § 5-525.1(b). The court's role in TPR cases is to give the most careful consideration to the relevant statutory factors, to make specific findings based on the evidence with respect to each of them, and, mindful of the presumption favoring a continuation of the parental relationship, determine expressly whether those findings suffice either to show an unfitness on the part of the parent to remain in a parental relationship with the child or to constitute an exceptional circumstance that would make a continuation of the parental relationship detrimental to the best interest of the child, and, if so, how. If the court does that articulates its conclusion as to the best interest of the child in that manner the parental rights we have recognized and the statutory basis for terminating those rights are in proper and harmonious balance. [11]