Opinion ID: 2640889
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Consequences of Failure to Participate

Text: (8) In considering the nature of a parent's obligation to comply with reunification orders, it is important to examine what sanctions or punishment the Legislature has specified for noncompliance. Section 361.5 itself provides that, with respect to a dependent child under age three at the time of detention, the court must inform the parent that failure . . . to participate regularly in any court-ordered treatment programs or to cooperate or avail himself or herself of services provided as part of the child welfare services case plan may result in a termination of efforts to reunify the family after six months. (§ 361.5, subd. (a).) At the same time, the court must inform parents about section 366.26 and the specific possibility that parental rights may be terminated. (§ 361.5, subd. (a).) These prescribed warnings do not include the possibility of being held in contempt of court, and punished by fine or incarceration, for failure to participate in services. Indeed, this possibility is not mentioned in any of the numerous statutorily required advisements. (9) Given the complexity of the statutory scheme governing dependency, a single provision cannot properly be understood except in the context of the entire dependency process of which it is part. ( Cynthia D. v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 242, 253 [19 Cal.Rptr.2d 698, 851 P.2d 1307].) Other dependency statutes indicate the Legislature envisions the punishment for noncompliance with reunification services to be loss of those services and, ultimately, loss of parental rights. For example, at the six-month review hearing, the juvenile court must decide whether return of a dependent child to the parent would be detrimental to the child. Section 366.21, subdivision (e) requires the court, in making this decision, to consider the efforts or progress, or both, demonstrated by the parent . . . and the extent to which he or she availed himself or herself [of] services provided, and it specifies that failure of the parent or legal guardian to participate regularly and make substantive progress in court-ordered treatment programs shall be prima facie evidence that return would be detrimental. Likewise, a parent's failure to progress in treatment constitutes evidence of detriment at the 12-month (§ 366.21, subd. (f)) and 18-month (§ 366.22, subd. (a)) review hearings. Additionally, if the child was under age three when removed from custody (or part of a sibling group with a child under age three), a finding at the six-month review hearing that the parent failed to participate regularly and make substantive progress in a court-ordered treatment plan can result in the termination of services at that point and scheduling of a section 366.26 permanency planning hearing. (§ 366.21, subd. (e).) These findings are critical. Once services have been terminated, the juvenile court's focus shifts from family reunification to the child's permanent placement and well-being, and the burden accordingly shifts to the parent to show that a termination of parental rights is not in the child's best interests. ( In re Marilyn H. (1993) 5 Cal.4th 295, 306-307, 309 [19 Cal.Rptr.2d 544, 851 P.2d 826]; In re Zachary G. (1999) 77 Cal.App.4th 799, 808 [92 Cal.Rptr.2d 20].) A parent may regain custody after reunification services have been terminated only by showing that changed circumstances demonstrate a return to parental custody is in the child's best interests. (§ 388; In re Marilyn H., at p. 309; In re Kimberly F. (1997) 56 Cal.App.4th 519, 528-529 [65 Cal.Rptr.2d 495].) This burden may be especially difficult to sustain for a parent who failed to continue with substance abuse treatment during the reunification period. (See In re Kimberly F., at p. 531, fn. 9.) Thus, the dependency statutes repeatedly make clear that the consequence of failure to participate in court-ordered reunification services is the loss of parental rights. The Agency has not called our attention to a single California statute or judicial decision approving the notion that juvenile courts may force compliance with reunification orders by punishing parental lapses with contempt proceedings and incarceration. Although the Agency suggests the threat of incarceration offers a useful strategy for preventing substance abuse relapses, [8] its reasoning could just as logically be applied to other aspects of a parent's case plan. For example, parents are often ordered to adhere to a certain visitation schedule. Under the Agency's analysis, a parent who misses a visit could be held in contempt of court and fined, or incarcerated. Setting aside the question of whether such a sanction would be excessive, it seems clearly inconsistent with the statutory scheme governing reunification. [9]