Court Opinion

ID: 9594307
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:28:51.401651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:11.840111
License: Public Domain

KALITOWSKI, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The trial court correctly determined that foster parents are not “lawful custodians” under Minn. Stat. § 260.155, subd. la (1990) and therefore cannot participate in parental termination proceedings as a matter of right. While foster parents may contract with a lawful custodian to provide care for a child, *864they are no more custodians as defined in Minn.Stat. § 260.015, subd. 14 (1990) than day-care centers, baby sitters or others who provide child care for hire. If it is in the child’s best interest to give greater rights to foster parents it is up to the legislature to explicitly do so, since public policy of the state is for the legislature to determine not the court. Mattson v. Flynn, 216 Minn. 354, 363, 13 N.W.2d 11, 16 (1944).