[EAGLE6]

I have another post on "becoming foster parents" in regards to my nephew. Long story short, my 2 month old nephew had been determined to be "severly physically abused and negelected" by my BIL and his girlfriend. My husband and I are interested in providing kinship foster placement for the baby.

The legal aspects of how this part of the system works is a mystery to me. Anyhow, the baby was initially taken to the hosptial last week, he was discharged on this past Friday (w/ multiple broken bones and other injuries). He went into a neutral foster home on Friday. On Monday we have a meeting to try to make a placement plan w/ the CW and the babies parents.

My question is on Friday my BIL and his girlfriend were served w/ court appearance summons. The summons has 2 court appearances on it. One for this Monday and another for mid-June. The second one is listed as a "permanancy planning hearing". Like I said the baby was just officialy removed on Friday. Is it normal for them to get a hearing for immediately and that far in advance?

I know for some reason my BIL and his girlfriend are under the impression (from the caseworker this will be resolved in a few weeks). Not sure how they got that impression, when the investigation is still being conducted. My husband and I are in this whether it's for a few days, weeks, months, or forever.

I'm just trying to figure out why they set a second hearing already.

Thank you.

[Proudfostermama]

I am pretty new, so i dont have any answers but I do hope your nephew can be placed with you as relatives since yall are stepping forward to taking him.

[Happy123]

I believe that the first court date would be to determine if the child will remain a ward of children's services. From a sounds of this he will be. The second court date is always set (I believe) to monitor progress of the bios case plan. At that time, the courts could extend the case or move to termination of parental rights. Hopefully the bios are wanting the child placed with you...and avoid the SW having to go to court to have it ordered.
Good Luck and I hope your nephew it doing better,
Happy123

[Boulderbabe]

Hi----it's so awesome that you're stepping in to help your nephew. I'm glad you're already in contact with the caseworker. It's so important for family members to be involved as soon as possible. You don't want this little guy in care for months, attaching to his foster family, before you take custody. Severing those attachments is really not good for kids, so try and make his first attachments to you.

Your BIL is very, very wrong. In case so severe as to cause broken bones, this isn't likely to be over soon. The only quick way out is if the court finds that the abuse was so severe that DSS does not have to provide your BIL and his girlfriend with any services, and can proceed right to termination of parental rights and adoption. My guess is that the court will probably not do this, but will put the baby on an expedited plan to try and reunify or terminate parental rights within about a year.

The hearings you're mentioning fit that kind of a schedule. The first hearing, on Monday, is probably what is called a "shelter hearing." That is where DSS must come to the judge and explain why the baby was taken, and justify keeping the baby in foster care instead of returning him to your BIL. That's a no-brainer in a case where a kid has broken bones: I can almost guarantee that the baby isn't going back.

At the end of the shelter hearing, the court is going to set a permanency planning goal for the baby. 99 times out of 100, the goal is "reunification." That means that the court will order services for your BIL and his partner, including therapy, parenting classes, drug treatment if it's needed, and so on. Once those services are ordered, the clock is ticking for your BIL. He has to comply with the treatment plan, or he'll lose custody of the baby permanently.

The hearing in six months is a permanency planning hearing. At that hearing, the court is going to look at how well your BIL and his girlfriend have done on the placement plan. If the answer is "well," then the goal will remain "reunification," and the baby's parents will keep working on services in anticipation of getting the baby back. If the answer is "not well," the court will change the goal to either "concurrent planning" or "adoption." Concurrent planning just means that a reunification plan and an adoption plan are going to move forward simultaneously for another 3 or 6 months. If, in that time, your BIL and his girlfriend have not completed the treatment plan, the court will terminate their parental rights and try to get the baby adopted. If you're the foster parents, you'll be first in line to adopt.

A few other quick ideas: If the abuse has been severe, there's some risk of brain injury. (A fkid I know pretty well was tossed onto a sofa as a newborn; he seemed fine until he was 2, but he's had a real struggle learning to talk because his brain was injured during the sofa toss). You will want to have this baby evaluated by neurologists VERY regularly. The earlier you can get a child into therapy, the more likely it is that they'll be able to heal the damage, so don't wait. They can even do therapy on infants now!

The other thing you may want to think about is how you are going to deal with BIL and girlfriend. You will need to be able to place VERY VERY strong boundaries around their interactions with the baby. If you can't keep them away from the baby except during court-ordered visitations, or if you let them have any unsupervised contact with the baby, DSS will take the baby away from you and place him with a foster family who can. Please be prepared to draw a VERY hard line in the sand with the entire family: you MUST stick to the letter of the court's orders, or the baby will be sent outside the family, possibly forever.

I hope all this information helps! It's wonderful that you're sticking up for your nephew. I hope you make it through the legal stuff quickly and that you just get to love the stuffin' out of him!! :-)

[EAGLE6]

Thank you for the info. My husband and I had a long talk about what this could mean for some of his family relationships. We are both on board. We intend to follow the rules of visitation and contact to a "T". We fully understand that this is going to affect the dynamics of our relationship w/ my husbands family.

We actually heard the baby was taken to the hospital last weekend. We spoke briefly to BIL on Sunday to inquire about the baby, and how he was doing. Then Monday morning we called SW. I knew that w/ the number of injuries there was no way this baby was being returned home right now.

Anyhow, we did not talk to anyone in the family until the end of the week. When we did make contact it was because the SW total BIL we offered to take the baby. We felt it was the right time to talk to the parents and let them know "we were not trying to take their baby away". Rather we were trying to provide the baby w/ a secure and stable home, in light of the fact he was not being returned home to them due to the states decision. We wanted to reassure them that we'd of course love the baby and keep him safe and healthy and treat him well.

I guess they told the SW they wanted the baby placed w/ us. Ultimately, their options seem to be us or a traditional foster home. From what the SW told me, they do get some input in what they do w/ the baby. That is what our meeting tomorrow is for w/ the case worker.