My husband and I went to a PPT for our two boys. They were placed in March '05 (but they had been in care since August of '04), and the PPT was in May.
Attendees of the PPT were: bio-mom and current boyfriend, bio-dad's lawyer (bio-dad was in jail), bio-mom's mother, case worker, CASA worker, CPS lawyer, my husband and I, and a whole slew of people from the county.
The meeting itself was pretty interesting. Essentially, the state wants to know how the biofamily is progressing with their "plan". If the family is doing well, they make future plans to return the children. If they are not, they make plans to have TPR hearings, etc.
In our case the bio-mom was making little to NO PROGRESS on her plan. She went to the parenting classes, but did not have a job, did not have a home, had not completed Drug and Alcohol classes, and rarely showed up to counseling, which was required weekly. When she spoke she gave a littany of excuses, and blamed is all on everybody but herself.
The boyfriend spoke and said he would "make sure she does the right thing." However, he didn't have a job, and was living with his parents at the age of 28, definately not a "pillar of the community."
The bio-mom's mother spoke, and we were totally shocked at her statement. She told the state she did not want the children to be returned to their mother, that she had witnessed the mother's poor behaviour and promises of improvement for years. She said she would love to adopt the kids, but she felt she was too old to handle them, so she wanted the foster family (us) to adopt them. She chewed out the mother, up one side and down the other. And, she told the state that if they gave the kids back to the mother, they should be ashamed.
CASA spoke and listed the many missed/skipped counseling sessions, and asked the bio-mom about her complete lack of ambition toward getting a job, or getting housing.
CPS spoke mentioning that the bio-mom had attended the Parenting Classes, and said that bio-mom said she would improve, but didn't have proof.
One of the people from the state inquired about the drug testing. It was stated that bio-mom failed one - she gave the excuse that it was "in the room" where she was but she wasn't smoking. The guy from the state almost laughed and said "yeah, right."
At the end of the meeting they gave the bio-mom another 6 months to get her stuff together, but if she had not made significant progress, they would move forward with TPR.
That meeting was in May of last year, the TPR happened on February 1st of this year.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions.
T
