Opinion ID: 6227009
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. W.

Text: In December 2019, Mr. W. also contacted the Department to express his desire to be a permanent placement and adopt K.W. A social worker and the CASA observed appropriate interactions between K.W. and Mr. W. and found Mr. W.’s home clean and appropriate. But when a department social worker interviewed Mr. W., he felt that the social worker was discouraging him from continuing the process because they believed he would not be able to pass a home study. The Department completed a background check on Mr. W. and learned that a previously dismissed 13 In re Dependency of K.W. No. 99301-7 DUI (driving under the influence) charge from a year earlier had recently been refiled. The Department was also concerned about other criminal allegations from 2011 and 2012, and his report that someone had stolen his firearm in 2015. The Department concluded that it would not consider placing K.W. with Mr. W. until the DUI charge was fully resolved. It also determined that his background check would require an additional review before deciding whether a home study could even occur and, therefore, he could not be an immediate placement option. 4. K.W.’s Second Request To Return to Relative Care On February 13, 2020, K.W. filed another motion to be returned to either Grandma B. or Aunt H. as well as another declaration, again expressing his desire to return to his relatives. Twenty relatives and family friends filed declarations in support of his motion, describing the extended family’s close bonds. K.W. also included a report by a clinical psychologist about placement best practices and the psychological and developmental impact of relative placement. Grandma B. and Aunt H. both filed declarations meticulously responding to the Department’s concerns about permanent placement with them and detailing their efforts to complete home studies. Grandma B. also provided a copy of the completed private home study recommending her as a suitable placement for K.W. The social worker who prepared it filed a declaration explaining that it met all the statutory requirements for a preplacement adoption home study report. 14 In re Dependency of K.W. No. 99301-7 The CASA filed a motion requesting to modify the December order to delay placing K.W. with a relative “until they have been fully vetted and passed the home study process” and requesting that K.W. remain in foster care. 5 CP at 1018. The CASA reported that K.W. continued to struggle in school since his parents’ rights were terminated and since his removal from Grandma B.’s care. But she provided the court with Grandma B.’s, Aunt H.’s, and Mr. R.’s civil court histories and argued it was in K.W.’s best interests to stay with the prospective adoptive family. The Department also opposed placing K.W. with a relative until that relative passed a home study. The Department argued that there is no statutory preference for relative placement once a dependent child becomes legally free and that permanence is the highest priority for a legally free child. Since the relatives had previously not been able to adopt K.W. and had only recently offered to be permanent placements for him after K.W. was removed from Grandma B.’s care, the Department did not want to place K.W. with a relative until they decided that would be his final placement, which could be determined only after a home study. The Department and the CASA also opposed Grandma B.’s private home study, stating that it did not meet Department standards. Specifically, the Department was concerned that the private home study did not include Grandma B.’s estranged husband as a co-applicant. It argued that Mr. R. was a safety concern because of his domestic violence history in 2011 and because of statements that 15 In re Dependency of K.W. No. 99301-7 K.W. had made about him and subsequently retracted. The Department would require both Grandma B. and Mr. R. to complete a department home study, which it would not begin before completing Aunt H.’s. In a March 12, 2020, hearing, the court acknowledged that “it is clear . . . that [K.W.] has a number of people who really care about him” but said that it was “particularly concerned about stability” and concluded that “stability is equally and sometimes more important” than living with relatives. RP (Mar. 12, 2020) at 86. The court ultimately decided it was in K.W.’s “best interest” to remain in his current potential adoptive foster placement. Id. at 88. Therefore, the court denied K.W.’s motion and granted the CASA’s motion to delay relative placement until Grandma B. or Aunt H. was “fully vetted with a Department approved home study.” 6 CP at 1364. K.W.’s counsel reminded the court that Grandma B. had completed an adoptive home study through the independent social worker. However, the court said, “The information that was provided was not completely accurate.” RP (Mar. 12, 2020) at 90. When K.W.’s counsel asked what information was inaccurate, the court simply said it would not argue with him. The court did not explain why it found the private home study inadequate. 16 In re Dependency of K.W. No. 99301-7