Advertisements
Advertisements
Was your son a relative? Relative placements are handled differently. Just like families who foster to adopt versus straight adoption. It also depends on how custody was granted... Foster, Relative placement, Adoptive placement or Legal guardianship. Sometimes there's a blend of the various types of placements. The line needs to be drawn more clearly and the courts need to stop flip-flopping so much on the direction of the cases.
If your son came from another state that's entirely different ball of wax. The transfer of the case, assigning a CW and scheduling visits is put on the backburner. You were adding another case to their load for child that's not even from their state. So the ball tends to get dropped in those situations. Cases like those typically fall outside their trackable metrics. Since the child was not taken into custody in your state they are probably not required to adhere to the time limits assigned to the average case. Dependant on the state you live in it could be 18 out of 22 months or something similar to that. I can't remember the exact time because we are not fostering anymore. If transfers from another state were trackable you can bet money they would roll that case through as quick as possible because it would improve their metrics. It would make it look like kids are spending less time in state care and they are clearing their case load faster.
We had another child who was scheduled for TPR. The father ended up getting custody and thought the state would still TPR the mom since it was scheduled. Nope... no TPR. They told him he would have to get his own lawyer to TPR. It's pretty much that way for most relative placements. That's why relatives hang back as long as possible. Without the TPR they are subject to custody challenges with the bparents.
One of my aunts had custody of her grandkids because their parents were long term drug addicts. The mom took her to court and ended up getting the kids back and she hasn't seen them again. The mom had not cleaned up her life. Enough time had passed and the mom was able to fake her way to regain custody. The youngest child didn't even know her because she was removed at birth. My aunt had the kids 7 years and then they were gone.
Homesteadma
If you run into a dead end and the foster care system will not help you with a TPR. The only thing I can suggest is that you try to get the bparents to voluntarily relinquish. You can hope that since they are family they may be willing to let go without a fight. Look into state legal resources too. One of my former co-workers adopted her grandson for free because of some program for grandparents/family members who are retired. She was still working but her DH was older and already retired so they qualified based on his status.