Department of Human Services v. M. D. P.

397 P.3d 582, 285 Or. App. 707
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 24, 2017
Docket14451J; Petition Number 14451J01; A161971 (Control); 14452J; Petition Number 14452J01; A161972
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 397 P.3d 582 (Department of Human Services v. M. D. P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Human Services v. M. D. P., 397 P.3d 582, 285 Or. App. 707 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

DUNCAN, P. J.

In these consolidated juvenile dependency cases, parents appeal the juvenile court’s judgments that changed the permanency plans for their two children, R and M, from reunification to guardianship. Parents assert that the juvenile court erred in concluding that, despite the Department of Human Services’ (DHS) reasonable efforts to effect reunification, parents had not made sufficient progress for the children to safely return home. We affirm.

Parents do not request that we exercise our discretion to review this case de novo, and we find no reason to do so. See ORAP 5.40 (8)(c) (“The Court of Appeals will exercise its discretion to try the cause anew on the record or to make one or more factual findings anew on the record only in exceptional cases.”). Thus, we “view the evidence, as supplemented and buttressed by permissible derivative inferences, in the light most favorable to the [juvenile] court’s disposition and assess whether, when so viewed, the record was legally sufficient to permit that outcome.” Dept. of Human Services v. N. P., 257 Or App 633, 639, 307 P3d 444 (2013); Dept. of Human Services v. G. N., 263 Or App 287, 294, 328 P3d 728, rev den, 356 Or 638 (2014) (whether a parent’s progress was sufficient is a legal conclusion that we review for errors of law).

We begin with a brief history of DHS’s involvement with the family. In October 2014, the juvenile court took jurisdiction over the children based on parents’ admissions that their “chaotic lifestyle and residential instability interfere with [their] ability to safely parent [,] ” that father had “exposed the [children] to domestic discord [,] ” and that mother “was subjected to domestic discord” by father and was “unable or unwilling to protect the [children] from exposure to father’s discord.” The children were placed in relative foster care with their paternal grandmother (grandmother).

The juvenile court ordered parents to (1) complete domestic violence counseling and demonstrate a “violence-free lifestyle”; (2) complete a psychological evaluation and follow the service recommendations from their evaluators; [710]*710(3) complete a parent training program and demonstrate skills learned in the program; and (4) maintain safe and stable housing.

Between October 2014 and the summer of 2015, parents moved between residences. Initially, parents moved from Florence to Roseburg. There, DHS connected parents with counseling services and asked them to initiate parent training. However, before parents were able to engage in any services in Roseburg, in January 2015, they moved back to Florence. In Florence, parents began to engage in services, such as domestic violence education and parenting classes, but made little progress and did not complete those programs.

Mother participated in a psychological evaluation with Dr. Sorensen in February 2015. Dr. Sorenson recommended that mother complete domestic violence services, counseling, and substance abuse treatment. Later in February 2015, mother began outpatient drug and alcohol treatment, but tested positive for marijuana during that treatment. In June 2015, mother gave birth to a healthy daughter, J, and, in July 2015, moved with the infant to a residential drug and alcohol program in Baker City.

Father was arrested for second-degree assault in February 2015 for throwing an ashtray at a roommate, and in March 2015, he was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon and sentenced to probation. Father admitted to his probation officer that he had been using methamphetamine. In June 2015, on his probation officer’s referral, father began a six-month residential drug and alcohol program in Portland.

In October 2015, the juvenile court conducted a permanency hearing in accordance with ORS 419B.470.1 At that hearing, the court granted parents a 120-day extension, [711]*711pursuant to ORS 419B.476(4)(c),2 to allow them to engage in necessary services. The court again ordered parents to complete domestic violence counseling and parent training and to maintain safe and stable housing. The court also ordered additional requirements of parents, including that father complete his psychological evaluation, and that both parents follow through with their evaluator’s recommendations.

In November 2015, father participated in a psychological evaluation with Dr. Basham, who recommended that father complete substance abuse treatment and then engage in a batterer’s intervention program. In December 2015, father completed residential substance abuse treatment, as well as anger management and parenting courses, and moved back to Florence. Also in December 2015, mother left the Baker City treatment program a month early and against clinical recommendation, to reunite with father in Florence. In Florence, parents began outpatient drug and alcohol treatment, individual counseling, domestic violence training and counseling, and parenting classes. Parents also began weekly visits with the children in December 2015 and began working with a parenting trainer, who supervised those visits, starting in January 2016.

The court held a second permanency hearing in March 2016. DHS requested that the children’s plan be changed from reunification to guardianship, and the children’s Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and the children’s attorney supported that change. Parents opposed a change in plan to guardianship.

At the time of the hearing, parents had completed or were engaged in all of their court-ordered services. They were employed and were moving into two sublet bedrooms in a house. They had been co-parenting J for two months.

[712]*712As for the children, at the time of the hearing, R was five years old and M was two years old. They had been in grandmother’s care for 18 months. When R first came into her grandmother’s care, she appeared more like a “little adult” than a four-year-old child and exhibited “parentified” behaviors toward M. R began weekly counseling sessions in November 2014. In a letter dated February 10, 2016, R’s therapist observed:

“Over the course of treatment with [R], I have observed her go through many ups and downs with regard to her ability to manage her anxiety in response to contact with her biological parents and ability to discuss feelings and thoughts related to returning home with them. [R] does best when she has consistent contact with or without them and she is not given mixed messages about what is going to happen to her. She holds on to a lot of worry thoughts about her parents, but it is also evident that she loves them and wants to be with them.”

A DHS case plan dated January 19, 2016, described R as “bright, healthy, cheerful, sociable and proud [,] ” and noted that she was “thriving at Head Start” and “is developing normally.” When M came into grandmother’s care, he had “essentially no muscle tone.” However, by February 2016, grandmother reported that M was very strong and healthy and had begun speaking. M was also developing normally.

After the hearing, the juvenile court entered a judgment changing the permanency plan from reunification to guardianship.

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Related

Dept. of Human Services v. M. G. J.
Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
397 P.3d 582, 285 Or. App. 707, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-human-services-v-m-d-p-orctapp-2017.