In Re Emily L.
AGLIANO, P.J.
The department of social services (DSS) and the minor, Emily L., appeal from a judgment denying the department‘s petition to terminate the parental rights of the minor‘s mother, respondent Ann P., pursuant to
FACTS
Emily L., born prematurely April 24, 1985, was placed in protective custody directly from the hospital when she was three weeks old. A petition
Respondent has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and an extensive criminal record dating back to 1977. When dependency was declared she was in custody on drug-related charges. The reunification service plan established for her included requirements that she complete a drug counseling program, refrain from possession or use of alcohol and illegal drugs, complete a parenting class, obtain stable housing, and visit regularly with Emily.
During the six-month period covered by this service plan, respondent enrolled in a parenting class and a drug program, and she visited twice with the minor at the jail facility. She did not obtain stable housing or the resources to pay for housing, however, and the social worker was not yet satisfied she would remain drug free. Nevertheless, due to respondent‘s incarceration and the lack of a “fair opportunity” to reunify with the minor, the social worker recommended extending services six more months. A second service plan was therefore signed on June 10, 1986, calling for the same conditions as the first, with an additional requirement that respondent submit to random drug testing. During the ensuing period respondent completed the parenting class, for which she received a “glowing evaluation,” and she visited weekly with the minor. These visits became unsupervised in her home until respondent twice tested positive for PCP. She then entered a residential drug treatment program.
On November 7, 1986, an 18-month permanency planning hearing was held. The social worker recommended long-term foster care to avoid the legislative mandate to terminate reunification services after 18 months: “We could no longer recommend continued reunification so the choices were to recommend terminating parental rights, returning the child home or long-term foster care. [¶] At this point in time Ann was not in a position to have her child returned, and I wanted to give her more time to reunify so I didn‘t want to recommend terminating her rights at that hearing so this was the only other choice I had.” The juvenile court adopted that recommendation. A third service plan was provided respondent, though she did not sign it. Visitation continued as before, until December 1986, when a scheduled extended visit was canceled because respondent had failed to appear for drug testing since early November 1986. The social worker informed
At the postpermanency planning hearing on April 24, 1987, the social worker changed her recommendation to a permanent plan of adoption. She felt that “things with Ann had deteriorated” to the extent that she could not foresee reunification. Accordingly, the juvenile court ordered that termination proceedings be initiated under
On September 9, 1987, DSS filed a petition to free Emily from respondent‘s custody and control under
Hearing was conducted on April 12 and May 2, 1988. The minor‘s social worker testified regarding her efforts to promote “unification” between respondent and the minor, and described respondent‘s failure to comply with the three service plans provided.
Respondent, who was again in custody on drug-related charges, testified on her own behalf. She stated that she lived with a stable man who did not drink or use drugs, and that she had not used illegal drugs for about 10 months. She also stated that she had a job waiting for her upon her release from jail in July. Finally, she testified there were no pending criminal charges, and the sentence she was then serving was for a crime committed over three years earlier.
On cross-examination, respondent admitted that she had pled guilty in March 1988, to being under the influence of PCP on November 28, 1987, and that there was in fact a pending charge against her of being under the influence of PCP in the county jail on December 31, 1987. She also
The probation officer‘s report indicated that respondent‘s previous employer was not holding her job for her, but he might be willing to hire her in another capacity. Examination of respondent‘s recent criminal history confirmed the November 1987 incident and the December 1987 charge, and revealed an additional conviction in October 1987 for public drunkenness (
DSS urged the court to grant the petition so that Emily could have stability as a permanent member of an adoptive home. Counsel noted the minor was three years old, had never been in respondent‘s custody, and had not even seen respondent for more than sixteen months.
The trial court, in denying the petition, found there had been no instability in the child‘s life, as she had been in the same foster home for over two years. Furthermore, since “the mother is in jail, and she has got a long ways to go, and she is going to convince everybody she is a good mother.... what I am asking is what is the rush?” The court sympathized with respondent‘s status as a member of a “subculture” of alcoholics and drug addicts who “have very slim chances of getting themselves out of the predicament they are in, and ... are given a blueprint for success ... which they are not capable of succeeding at.... [¶] Now, that is the classic catch twenty-two a lot of people in our society spend an awful or an inordinate amount of their lives dealing with, and I think Miss [P.] is one of these people.” The court acknowledged the statutory limits on reunification opportunities: “I know you are supposed to do all this in eighteen months and all that, and she has got a criminal record that would choke a horse, but ... there is a whole population out there that is just going to spend their whole life taking P.C.P. and doing nothing, and I think once in a while if somebody is making an effort the least we can do is pause and see what happened. [¶] That is all I am suggesting here, a pause to see what happened [sic].”
The court found that there was absolutely “no excuse” for respondent‘s noncompliance with drug testing, and that her failure to comply with that requirement for reunification indicated “either a too casual attitude about [her] responsibilities or just a hopeless ineptness on [her] part.” It observed, however, that “sometimes some people have to have a longer leash, and if
DISCUSSION
1. Appealability
As a preliminary matter, we consider respondent‘s contention that the judgment is not appealable. We previously decided this issue in denying respondent‘s motion to dismiss the appeal. Confronted with the identical argument for dismissal, we reaffirm our previous ruling that the judgment is appealable. (1a) Respondent misunderstands
2. The Merits
(3a) DSS and the minor contend the trial court failed to adhere to the “best interest of the child” standard and the statutory mandate to give dependent children permanent, secure homes without unnecessary delay. The court‘s denial of the petition, they argue, was therefore contrary to the express intent of the Legislature and must be reversed as a matter of law.
In the present case, the juvenile court found on April 24, 1987, that placement of Emily in her mother‘s custody would be detrimental to the minor. The court further determined that Emily was an adoptable child. It therefore appropriately ordered the initiation of proceedings to sever respondent‘s parental ties to respondent in order to release her for adoption.
At the
(4) To facilitate the goal of adoption, “‘the state as a parens patriae not only has a compelling interest but also a duty to sever the parental bonds once a situation contemplated by the statute arises.‘” (In re Laura F. (1983) 33 Cal.3d 826, 837 [191 Cal. Rptr. 464, 662 P.2d 922].) The court was therefore without discretion to deny the petition merely to give respondent yet another chance to reform.
The Legislature has emphasized that in a proceeding to sever the parent-child relationship it is the child‘s welfare, not the parent‘s, that is
(3b) In this case, the minor had been in foster care her entire life, almost three years, and had had only visitation contact with respondent. She had not seen her mother for over 16 months. Meanwhile, she had become attached to her foster-adoptive parents, who wished to adopt her. Her welfare compelled the severance of ties to respondent so that she could at last acquire a permanent home.
The trial court found that the minor had not experienced instability, as she had been in the same foster home for over two years. (5) Continuity in a placement setting, however, is not equivalent to the security and stability of a permanent home. The goal of permanency planning is to end the uncertainty of foster care and allow the dependent child to form a long-lasting emotional attachment to a permanent caretaker. “Foster placement, being temporary, does not do the trick because it warns the adults against any deep emotional involvement with the child. Even adoptive parents may hesitate to make a full commitment to the child as long as the placement is not irrevocable.” (In re Micah S. (1988) 198 Cal. App.3d 557, 566 [243 Cal. Rptr. 756] (Brauer, J., conc.).)
(3c) The trial court viewed the prospect of unification with her child as an incentive to respondent to change “against all odds.” It stated: “How do you give the person that is on the bottom any hope if you take away the only thing that provides the hope? ... [U]nless she has an incentive other than this boyfriend here, to become a recovered dope addict then she isn‘t going to.... [W]e may be holding in our hands the only motivation that will make her change, and that gives me pause to think about it, especially when the child isn‘t going any place [sic] anyway.”
Emily was almost three years old by the time the
Adding to the delay, the
The trial court appropriately viewed the severance of parental ties as a drastic judicial action. It stated that it was “simply not prepared to make that decision [to terminate parental rights] today.” However, by granting a “pause to see what happen[s],” the court prolonged the minor‘s uncertainty, contrary to the intent of
The judgment is reversed. The superior court is directed to enter judgment granting the petition to free the minor from the custody and control of respondent.
Cottle, J., and Elia, J., concurred.