Court Opinion

ID: 9527702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:33:05.073849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:04.405210
License: Public Domain

SIMMS, Justice,
dissenting in part:
Today the Court is reaching out to address issues regarding the power of a district judge to intervene in care and placement decisions made by the Department which are not before us. J.U. Is no longer in the Department’s custody. Any questions about the juvenile court’s control over her foster home placement by the Department were rendered abstract and moot when the respondent judge revoked the Department’s custody while this matter was pending here. Of even greater importance than the fact that the Court is proceeding with this action and issuing this decision which is mere dicta, however, is the fact that the answers it reaches are wrong.
There is no support for the Court’s conclusion that the newly revamped statutory scheme of the Children’s Code, Title 10 Oklahoma Statutes, gives juvenile court judges the power to approve or disapprove the Department’s placement choices for deprived children placed in the agency’s custody. To the contrary, the statutes are a strong and direct legislative statement of the Department’s exclusive discretion to determine the appropriate placement for children in its custody. As the Court recognizes, 10 O.S.Supp 1996, § 7003.7.1(B) provides:
“If the child is placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services, whether in emergency, temporary or permanent custody, the Department shall determine the appropriate placement of the child.”
In support of its holding, the Court relies on the next two sentences of this section which read:
“However, under no circumstances may the Department of Human Services return a child to a parent that contributed to the child being deprived due to abuse or neglect, without prior approval of the court. Any change in the placement of a child adjudicated to be deprived shall be in accord with the provisions of subsection F of Section 7003-5.6 of this title.”
The Court’s rebanee is misplaced, however, as those provisions estabbsh only carefully bmited exceptions to the otherwise unquah-fied authority of the Department to determine the care and treatment decisions of children in its custody. The provisions of subsection F of § 7003-5.6, referred to above, are now set forth in 10 O.S.Supp.1996 § 7003-5.4a. and those specific limitations are not relevant to the facts of this matter as they concern the Department’s intended change of a child’s placement only under circumstances where: 1.) The child would be returned to an abusive or neglectful parent; or 2.) The child has already been moved once since the last court hearing.
In these particular situations, the legislature has expressed its intent that the court should act as a check on the Department’s discretion to move the child out of an existing placement and into another. This statutory restriction is expbcitly designed to promote *832the stability of a child’s placement and prevent an unwise or arbitrary move of the child by the Department. It does not, however, lend itself to the Court’s result here giving the juvenile judge general authority to disrupt a child’s existing foster placement determined by the Department.
Neither do the terms of § 7003-7.1(B)(2) support the majority’s position that the juvenile court may control the Department’s placement decisions. That section simply provides that the person, institution, agency or Department having custody of a child shall receive notice of court proceedings involving the child and be allowed to intervene as a party to court proceedings and proceedings pursuant to the Inpatient Mental Health Treatment of Children Act.
Once a child is placed with the Department, the Department is responsible for the child’s care and all his or her needs, including placement. Title 10 O.S.Supp.1995, Section 7004-l.l(A)(2). provides that the Department has the power and duty to “review and assess” each deprived child placed in its custody and determine which of several possible placement choices, including foster care, seems most appropriate to meet the needs of the child.
If the Department concludes that foster care is the best residential placement decision for a child in its custody, 10 O.S.Supp. 1995, § 7208(C) gives the agency exclusive discretion to determine the particular foster home in which the child should be placed:
“When a child, under the jurisdiction of a court pursuant to the Oklahoma Children’s Code, is placed in the custody of the Department * * *[it] shall have discretion to determine an appropriate foster placement for the child.”
The statute further provides that other than for certain excepted circumstances which are not relevant here, the Department has the sole discretion to remove a child from his or her foster placement whenever the Department “determines that removal is in the best interests of the deprived child.”
The Court attempts to obfuscate the clear meaning of relevant statutes with scattered references to provisions of the act as a whole which have no application to this question. The statutory language at issue is unambiguous and its meaning is clear — the Department has the exclusive discretion to determine placement for children in its custody. The plain meaning of these provisions leaves no room for the Court’s construction to the opposite result. Cave Springs Public School District v. Blair, 613 P.2d 1046 (Okla.1980).
This is not an issue of first impression. The battle of wills between the Department and the juvenile courts over the courts’ authority to control the Department’s care and placement decisions about children after they are placed in the Department’s custody, has been a persistent source of conflict within the juvenile system for at least the last twenty years and it has been before the appellate courts on several occasions. It is important to note that those eases were decided contrary to the position urged by the trial judge here under earlier versions of the Children’s Code which did not have definite and certain legislative statements of the Department’s exclusive placement authority, such as those found in the current versions. In each instance, the Courts held that once a juvenile judge placed custody with the Department he had no authority under the statutes to direct the Department to select a particular placement or institute a certain treatment for the child.
In State of Oklahoma, ex rel., Department of Institutions, Social and Rehabilitative Services v. LeVally, 562 P.2d 519 (Okl.1977), this Court held that where a juvenile judge placed a child in need of supervision in the custody of the Department, the judge did not have the power to then order the Department to transport the minor to a specific facility and detain him there, conduct certain physical and psychiatric examinations and return him to the court by a date certain. The trial court was therefore prohibited from attempting to enforce his order as it exceeded power granted under the statutes then in force, 10 O.S.1971, §§ 1135,1143.
Of particular relevance to the instant case is Carder v. Court of Criminal Appeals, 595 P.2d 416, 422 (Okla.1979), where this Court recognized that the legislature intended the Department to have significant authority *833over children in its custody as it had granted the agency autonomy in its care and treatment of them. The Court stated:
“It is true that the Legislature has granted the Department a considerable degree of institutional administrative autonomy in its care and treatment of the children placed in its custody by the several juvenile courts. (See §§ 1135, 1138, 1139, 1404). This autonomy is an obvious legislative recognition of the vast resources and qualified personnel the Department has available, as well as of the Department’s need for “in-house” decision making power brought about by the sheer numbers of children placed in its custody. In terms of this case, the Department would not, under the cited statutes, have been bound by a suggestion from Judge Maley that Howard should be placed in one particular Departmental Institution or that he should receive a certain type of treatment for a certain length of time. [Citations omitted].”
In this regard, the Court of Criminal Appeals has also held that where a juvenile is committed to the Department as a delinquent child, the statutes at issue did not give authority to the juvenile court to control the Department’s decisions regarding placement and treatment. See Matter of D.W.S., Okl. Cr. 563 P.2d 663 (1977); State of Oklahoma, ex rel., Department of Institutions, Social and Rehabilitative Services v. Jennings, Okl. Cr. 561 P.2d 99 (1977). See generally, Callahan, Juvenile Law: The extent of Judicial Intervention in Agency Care and Treatment in Oklahoma, 32 Okl.L.Rev. 853 (1979).
Additionally, the majority is unduly concerned about the fact that J.U. was placed more that 40 miles from home. That placement did not offend any statutory requirement or directive; individual service and treatment plans are required by §§ 7003-5.3 only to state that a closer placement is unavailable or inappropriate. Statutory guidelines provide that in assessing a foster care placement, the Department should consider the child’s best interest as well as any expression of the child’s preference. 10 O.S.Supp 1996, § 7207.A.
Noticeably absent from these guidelines is any legislative mandate that the agency should solicit, or heed, placement suggestions from the juvenile judge. In my opinion, a statutory provision which is significant to this case involving J.U. and her infant brother is set forth in § 7202(10), expressing the legislative intent that in foster care placements when two or more children are siblings, “every reasonable effort should be made [by the Department] to place them in the same home.” The Department had placed J.U. and her brother in the same home, but the juvenile court — in an order upheld now by this court — has separated them.
In giving the juvenile court this authority to disapprove the Department’s placement decision and approving of its exercise in this manner, the Court today has rendered an advisory opinion totally at odds with the legislative intent of the Children’s Code and has created uncertainty in the juvenile system which will cause confusion and hardship.
The respondent judge had the power to revoke the Department’s status as J.U.’s custodian and place J.U. with a different custodian by order of the court. Once he did so, however, he had no authority to order the Department to pay foster care reimbursements to the court’s designated custodian or to issue clothing vouchers for J.U. Eligibility requirements for Department services and assistance are not placed within the discretion of the district courts of this state.
This order exceeds the power of the court and, as the majority reluctantly concludes, a writ of prohibition should be issued to the trial court to prevent its enforcement. This same issue was addressed by this Court in February, 1990, in State, ex rel., Dept. Of Human Services v. Major Wilson, case No. 74,516, and again in September, 1992, in State, ex rel. Dept. Of Human Services v. Hall, case no. 74,497, where this Court, in unpublished orders, assumed original jurisdiction and issued writs of prohibition against the trial courts which had ordered the Department to pay foster and medical care for children after the judges had removed them from the Department’s custody. The same result is also compelled here to prevent the *834respondent’s abuse of judicial power and authority not granted by law.
I am authorized to state that Justice LAVENDER and Justice OP ALA join with me in the views expressed herein.