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Originally Posted By Friend

I have a friend who has a severely handicapped child about 10 years old. The child began suffering severe seizures when she was 1. Now has a brain capacity rating of about 6 months that has remained constant for the past several years. She does not show any sign of recognizing those around her or of responding to them. She is in a home for severely disabled. My friend has since had several other children and cannot afford to continue to support the handicapped child even with state and federal assistance. I recommended to my friend to look into placing the child for adoption, but my friend is concerned that no one will want to adopt this child because she is so severely handicapped. My friend wants to relinquish parental rights and turn the child over to the state to avoid continuing financial obligations, but is not sure what is the most effective and economical legal route to do this. Do you have any recommendations for my friend? If no adoptive agencies want my friend's child, is there a way to relinquish or terminate parental rights so that my friend can turn the child over to the state and not keep incurring costs that my friend cannot afford to pay?

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Unfortunately, your friend may not be able to terminate her rights and place this child through a private agency because the child would need to be eligible for subsidies and medicaid in order to place her. I don't know the status of her financial assistance at this time. In addition, many public agencies only get involved with terminations if the child is involved in abuse or neglect. Your firend may be put on a parent participation plan and have to go through that system if she wants to terminate her rights. It isn't an easy process to terminate rights on older children voluntarily. I suggest she contact someone in the state of her residence.