*Third in a series.
N.C. House Bill 918 would give foster parents the right to file for termination of parental rights after only nine months, rather than the federally-mandated minimal standard of one year.
This would only apply to children age three and younger, whose foster parents have cared for them for at least nine months. The bill would also make the foster parents “non-relative kin,” putting them in line for adoption after the birth family.
The Department of Health and Human Services presented a list of questions and concerns about the bill when it came to a vote in May. The Department is working with the bill’s sponsors to make sure the bill’s language protects children and families, “with the ultimate goal of achieving permanency.”
Reggie O’Rourke is assistant counsel for the state’s guardian ad litem program, which provides trained volunteers as well as attorneys to investigate and determine the needs of abused and neglected children. O’Rourke objected to provisions of the bill, calling the termination of parental rights a “civil death penalty.”
“It’s the most serious thing we do in the law,” O’Rourke said. “It needs to be the last thing we look at for children.”
The overriding goal
of foster care is reunification, but Sen. Joyce Kraweic (R) of Forsyth, believes that there should be some exceptions to that rule.
“Children are constantly going home with addicted mothers, and then going back in the system, then going back home, bouncing back and forth,” said Kraweic. “That’s what we want to stop.”
Rep. Graig Meyer (D) of Orange, who is an adoptive parent and social worker, said that “this bill is trying to create a solution to what I think is an old problem that has some established solutions.”
According to Graham County DSS Director Cris Weatherford, the bill would have an averse effect on the foster care system, “adding another party to the case, dragging it out longer while it was meant to speed it up.”
“As currently written, the legislature does not comply with federal mandate (in North Carolina it applies to local county DSS) to work toward reunification for all children who come into the custody of the state or county,” Weatherford said. “It has the potential to put the financial resources needed to support these children and their families at risk.”
The bill passed the house in May, with Rep. Kevin Corbin (R), who represents Graham County, Macon, Clay, and Cherokee counties voting in favor.
HB 918 is now pending.