Imagine a 16 year old boy whose parents lost parental rights when he was an infant. The biological mother, however, maintained a good and productive relationship with him through a post adoption contact agreement. Imagine then, too, that the adoptive parents both pass away and the child, now 16, has to go back into foster care and be told that his biological mother can no longer contact him, nor can she file for custody or restoration of her parental rights despite the fact that she has an ongoing relationship with him and has drastically improved her circumstances. He wants to go home with his mom, but the law won’t allow it. That’s the narrow circumstance this bill is meant to address. If the purpose of our social services is to strengthen families, we need to close this gap. This bill is narrowly focused and will not lead to a flood of re-litigating abuse and neglect cases.
In over 30 years of litigating CPS cases, my experience has been that only one has ever seen a parent maintain contact through a post adoption agreement. Under the circumstances described above, a child is being traumatized repeatedly. Losing adoptive parents is bad enough, but then being told that as a result of that you also lose contact with the biological mother who has never stopped loving you is compounding the tragedy.
If the biological parent can show by clear and convincing evidence that she (or he) has maintained a positive relationship with the child and can properly care for him/her, we strengthen our communities by allowing the child to return home.
This bill won’t allow every parent who has lost parental rights to file for custody. Only those few who’ve shown the grit and determination to maintain a healthy relationship with the child. And only in the rare circumstances that the final adoption is disrupted.
Surely, allowing the child to return to a loving family is far superior to forcing a teenager back into foster care.
I urge passage of this bill.
Respectfully,
Michael J. Sobey, Esq.
Imagine a 16 year old boy whose parents lost parental rights when he was an infant. The biological mother, however, maintained a good and productive relationship with him through a post adoption contact agreement. Imagine then, too, that the adoptive parents both pass away and the child, now 16, has to go back into foster care and be told that his biological mother can no longer contact him, nor can she file for custody or restoration of her parental rights despite the fact that she has an ongoing relationship with him and has drastically improved her circumstances. He wants to go home with his mom, but the law won’t allow it. That’s the narrow circumstance this bill is meant to address. If the purpose of our social services is to strengthen families, we need to close this gap. This bill is narrowly focused and will not lead to a flood of re-litigating abuse and neglect cases. In over 30 years of litigating CPS cases, my experience has been that only one has ever seen a parent maintain contact through a post adoption agreement. Under the circumstances described above, a child is being traumatized repeatedly. Losing adoptive parents is bad enough, but then being told that as a result of that you also lose contact with the biological mother who has never stopped loving you is compounding the tragedy. If the biological parent can show by clear and convincing evidence that she (or he) has maintained a positive relationship with the child and can properly care for him/her, we strengthen our communities by allowing the child to return home. This bill won’t allow every parent who has lost parental rights to file for custody. Only those few who’ve shown the grit and determination to maintain a healthy relationship with the child. And only in the rare circumstances that the final adoption is disrupted. Surely, allowing the child to return to a loving family is far superior to forcing a teenager back into foster care. I urge passage of this bill. Respectfully, Michael J. Sobey, Esq.