Although Tel-Law information is periodically reviewed, it is important for you to realize that changes may occur in this area of law. This information is not intended to be legal advice regarding your particular problem, and it is not intended to replace the work of an attorney.
If you do not have an attorney, the Oregon State Bar Lawyer Referral Service can help you. Online Lawyer Referral Service information and a fill-in form is available. Or you may contact the service by phone: The number to call from the Portland area is 503-684-3763 or toll-free from anywhere else in Oregon, 1-800-452-7636.
The following information regarding foster care and termination of parental rights is brought to you as a public service by the lawyers of the State of Oregon. The material presented is intended to alert you to possible legal problems and solutions.
Parents' rights include the right to the care, custody and control of their child; the right to discipline the child; and the right to control the religious and moral education of the child. Children are under the charge of their parents and are expected to live with them and obey them. Parents also must support their children. Normally, the state cannot interfere with these rights, so long as the parent fulfills his or her obligations to provide for the child's care and support.
When parents do not support and care for their children, the state may intervene. The state does this to prevent child abuse and neglect and to prosecute parents who do not provide adequately for their children or who are abusing their children. The state also may interfere under the authority of the Juvenile Court and temporarily or permanently take away the parents' rights in order to protect the child from neglect and abuse. This is done to protect what is called the "best interests" of the child, meaning that the court considers everything the child's life in order to decide where the child should be placed and what kinds of services the child needs.
Anyone who believes a child is in danger or needs help may call the Juvenile Court or the Department of Human Services program for Children and Families—CAF. State laws list certain public officials and private professionals who must report evidence of physical and mental injuries, sexual abuse, or severe neglect to the police or to CAF. Anyone who makes a report in good faith and on reasonable grounds is immune from civil and criminal liability, and the informant’s name will not be released to anyone outside CAF.
The police or CAF investigates reports of abuse and neglect. If the investigation supports the report, CAF can file a petition in the Juvenile Court. If the child is in danger, the police or CAF may take the child from his or her home immediately. A hearing will be held the next court day before a judge at the Juvenile Court. This hearing decides whether the child should be returned home or held in shelter care until a full hearing on the facts can take place. The court must also decide what reasonable efforts have been made to keep the child in the home and prevent removal of the child. The parents have the right to be represented by a lawyer at any court hearing. Depending on the facts, the court may provide a lawyer for a parent who cannot afford one.
If the judge finds that the child has been abused or neglected, or the child's behavior is beyond the parents' control, the child may be left in the parents' home under the supervision of CAF, removed to protective foster care, or become a ward of the court. If a child becomes a ward of the court, this means that the parents have lost the right to discipline the child or control the child's education. Those responsibilities then go to the people with whom the child is placed. The parents must get approval from the Juvenile Court to regain custody of their child or to change the child's placement. CAF also must try to find relatives who may be able to take care of the child. Grandparents have the right to intervene in these cases, although they do not have the right to an attorney at state expense.
While the child is in foster care, a SCF worker or court counselor will work with the parents until they are convinced that it is safe to return the child home, or until one year has passed. At that time, the judge will conduct a hearing to make permanent plans for the child after reviewing the family's progress. When the family can be reunified safely, the parents will regain custody. In extreme cases, a petition may be filed seeking to terminate the parents' rights to their child.
A petition may be filed to terminate one or both parent's rights to the child in the following situations:
- The parent or parents are not fit to care for the child because there has been one or more incidents of extreme conduct toward their child or any child. Examples of extreme conduct include rape, intentional torture, and serious physical injury.
- The parent or parents are not fit to care for the child because unsafe conditions at home are not likely to change in the near future making it impossible for the child to return home. Examples include parents involved in drug abuse, chronic neglect of the child, or untreated mental health problems.
- The parent or parents do not provide for the basic physical and psychological needs of the child for six months. This means that if the child has been placed in foster care, the parents must continue to visit and support the child, and cooperate with the case worker or face possible termination of their rights.
- The child is abandoned, the parents cannot be found, and the parents do not claim the child within three months.
In these situations, the Juvenile Court decides whether one or both of the parents' rights to the child should be terminated. If the court decides to terminate the parents' rights, the parents may appeal that decision.
Once the parents' rights are finally terminated, the parents can never get them back. In the eyes of the law, there is no further right for the child to inherit from the parents or vice versa, there is no obligation to support the child and there is no right to control the discipline or education of the child. Since the child now has no legal parents, he or she may be adopted by a new parent. It is the decision of the Juvenile Court whether the child continues to stay in foster care, is placed in an adoption agency, or is adopted immediately by a new parent or parents. Since the original parents' rights have been terminated, those parents have no authority to appear in any of these proceedings.
This information is from the Oregon State Bar's Tel-law service, a collection of recorded legal information messages prepared by the lawyers of Oregon. In addition to being online, the Tel-law service is accessible by telephone at 503-620-3000 or toll-free in Oregon only, 1-800-452-4776. A touch tone phone allows direct access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To receive a free Tel-law brochure listing the subjects available call 503-620-0222, ext. 0.