Opinion ID: 1847492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: necessity of reasonable efforts to reunify family

Text: Both Ben and Joanna next assign that the juvenile court erred by concluding that it was not necessary for the State to make reasonable efforts to reunify the family. At issue is § 43-283.01(4), which provides in relevant part that [r]easonable efforts to preserve and reunify the family are not required if a court of competent jurisdiction has determined that: (a) The parent of the juvenile has subjected the juvenile to aggravated circumstances, including, but not limited to, abandonment, torture, chronic abuse, or sexual abuse; (b) The parent of the juvenile has (i) committed first or second degree murder to another child of the parent, (ii) committed voluntary manslaughter to another child of the parent, (iii) aided or abetted, attempted, conspired, or solicited to commit murder, or aided or abetted voluntary manslaughter of the juvenile or another child of the parent, or (iv) committed a felony assault which results in serious bodily injury to the juvenile or another minor child of the parent; or (c) The parental rights of the parent to a sibling of the juvenile have been terminated involuntarily. We discussed § 43-283.01 in some detail in In re Interest of DeWayne G. & Devon G. [6] We began by considering § 43-283.01 in light of the entire juvenile code. We then noted that with regard to the termination of parental rights pursuant to § 43-292, the Legislature incorporated § 43-283.01 into only § 43-292(6). Subsection (6) now states that parental rights can be terminated when, Following a determination that the juvenile is one as described in subdivision (3)(a) of section 43-247, reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify the family if required under section 43-283.01, under the direction of the court, have failed to correct the conditions leading to the determination. Section 43-283.01 is not incorporated into any of the other grounds for seeking termination of parental rights. We additionally note that the plain language of §§ 43-284, 43-254, 43-1315, and 43-292(6), as amended by the Legislature in 1998, recognizes that determinations regarding reasonable efforts are necessary only if required under § 43-283.01. Section 43-283.01 limits situations in which the State is required to provide reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify, by completely eliminating any such requirement in those situations contemplated under § 43-283.01(4)(a), (b), and (c). Construing this statutory framework in pari materia, we determine that the issue of reasonable efforts if required under § 43-283.01 must be reviewed by the juvenile court (1) when removing from the home a juvenile adjudged to be under subsections (3) or (4) of § 43-247 pursuant to § 43-284, (2) when the court continues a juvenile's out-of-home placement pending adjudication pursuant to § 43-254, (3) when the court reviews a juvenile's status and permanency planning pursuant to § 43-1315, and (4) when termination of parental rights to a juvenile is sought by the State under § 43-292(6). [7] In In re Interest of DeWayne G. & Devon G., we clearly indicated that reasonable efforts to reunify a family are required under the juvenile code only when termination is sought under § 43-292(6); we reaffirm that holding today. In this case, termination was not sought under § 43-292(6); it was sought under § 43-292(2), (4), (8), (9), and (10)(d). It was not necessary for the State to make reasonable efforts to reunify this family, and Ben's and Joanna's assignments of error to the contrary are without merit.