Court Opinion

ID: 9731054
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:31:37.343425+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:12.636789
License: Public Domain

SACKETT, Judge
(concurring in part and •dissenting in part).
I concur in part and dissent in part. I agree with the majority that the State has met the legislative requirements necessary for terminating parental rights. I agree with the majority decision to affirm the trial court on that issue. I disagree with their decision to affirm the trial court’s refusal to check the children’s maternal aunt’s home as a placement.
While I agree with the majority that under the law we are required to terminate this mother’s parental rights, I do not necessarily agree with the majority that termination of parental rights is in the children’s *118best interests. These children clearly would be better served if we could assist their mother in correcting her parenting deficiencies so they could be reunited as a family. . The biological mother finally seems to be stabilizing her life. She has moved in with her parents, terminated her relationship with an abusive boyfriend, has gotten a restraining order preventing him from contacting her, has obtained her GED, and is taking job and parenting skill classes.
The children, who were born in 1982 and 1984, are now eight years old and eleven years old, they know their birth parents, have bonded with them, and know their extended families. The children are scarred by abuse and poor parenting, the insecurities of being removed from their original home, and being put in several homes in the system. They have a maternal aunt who has asked to be considered as a placement option for them and, without a study of her home, she has been turned down. Terminating biological ties of children is difficult for children and even more difficult for children who know and have bonded with their birth parents. Furthermore, when children's parental rights are terminated they have no legal parent unless an adoption takes place. When children are the ages of these children, eight and eleven, they frequently are not adopted. If adopted, their adoptive parents frequently find parenting extremely difficult because of the children’s backgrounds and the unresolved problems with their birth parents. Unfortunately, as judges, we are generally put in the position of terminating parental rights with no clear evidence of what will be provided for the children as parents, if any, after the termination takes place.
With the difficulty in finding adoptive homes, I find no valid reason for not checking out the home of the aunt who has manifested a desire to have the children and would keep these children’s biological ties intact.
I would affirm the termination of the mother's parental rights, but reverse to order a home study of the aunt’s home to determine if she is a proper placement.