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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jan 12, 2022 19:41:35 GMT
My brother and SIL live in Oregon and are foster parents. They have had the kids since April 2020, and the kids were in a different foster home for at least 6 months prior to that. My understanding is that CPS has been involved with the family for several years. There are quite a few kids with several different dads. There are also several different social workers as it seems the kids all have separate CPS cases, rather than the parents having the case for all of them like it is here. The way that the system works there seems quite different than here in MN. I am not a CPS worker but do work in the human services field so have some knowledge about procedures. Here, there is a time limit that kids can be in foster care and in that time the county would need to decide if they have enough to terminate rights or if the kids need to return to the parents. My brother and SIL had no intentions of adopting but at this time the father (I am confused about whether or not moms rights have been terminated?) has had unsupervised visits and it isn't going well. The social worker has asked my brother and SIL if they would be "durable guardians" because they don't think the parents can handle having the kids back, but they don't have enough to terminate rights. But I am confused how the state can give guardianship of kids to someone else until they are 18 unless the parents agree or rights are terminated? Can anyone describe how this works?
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jan 12, 2022 19:48:45 GMT
You can read a lot of detail here: www.courts.oregon.gov/programs/jcip/Documents/Additional-Guardianships.pdfBasically they have enough to prove it's not appropriate to return the child to their parents, but not enough to terminate rights and allow for adoption. Parents can petition at any time to end guardianship. Basically trying to find a more stable environment than foster care for those kids in limbo. |
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MerryMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,615 
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Post by MerryMom on Jan 13, 2022 4:18:29 GMT
The “state” doesn’t give custody or guardianship. The court (Judge) issues custody or guardianship orders.
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Post by stormycat on Jan 13, 2022 12:08:25 GMT
I am in PA and a foster mom who did adopt, 2 siblings but different situations. One was a near fatality, so they would have gotten rights terminated but birth parents voluntarily signed over to help their criminal case. The sibling who was born 13 months later, wasn’t injured but criminal case was still open so they were able to automatically take that baby. She was pregnant again and knew if she signed him over voluntarily her CPS case would close and she could keep next baby, and that’s exactly what happened. Eventually criminal case closed , they served 80 days work release, sigh. She was able to delay her sentence because of pregnancy I might add.
It actually happens a lot with older kids, where foster parents gain guardianship, because of situations like you stated or the kids, especially older ones, don’t want to be adopted but want to remain in their foster homes. The state usually only has so long to find permanency for the kids, so rather then drag it out they might find other options such as your family’s case.
Being a foster parent is the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. My 2 little boys are the light of my life, as were the 4 other boys who were with me and went onward.
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jan 13, 2022 12:57:51 GMT
I am in PA and a foster mom who did adopt, 2 siblings but different situations. One was a near fatality, so they would have gotten rights terminated but birth parents voluntarily signed over to help their criminal case. The sibling who was born 13 months later, wasn’t injured but criminal case was still open so they were able to automatically take that baby. She was pregnant again and knew if she signed him over voluntarily her CPS case would close and she could keep next baby, and that’s exactly what happened. Eventually criminal case closed , they served 80 days work release, sigh. She was able to delay her sentence because of pregnancy I might add. It actually happens a lot with older kids, where foster parents gain guardianship, because of situations like you stated or the kids, especially older ones, don’t want to be adopted but want to remain in their foster homes. The state usually only has so long to find permanency for the kids, so rather then drag it out they might find other options such as your family’s case. Being a foster parent is the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. My 2 little boys are the light of my life, as were the 4 other boys who were with me and went onward. I have also known several people who voluntarily terminated their rights so that they could potentially keep subsequent children. That also doesn’t seem to be the case in OR (my brother may not know all of the details but he was told that regardless of what happens with the older children the mother would be able to keep her baby that she is pregnant with until there is a reason to open a CPS case). Regardless of whether it is technically the state or a judge, someone would be giving guardianship other than the parents. It doesn’t seem right to be able to do that long term unless parents agree to that or rights are terminated. The way it was described to my brother and SIL was that they would basically take over the role of the social worker in determining when and how long parents would get to see the kids, etc. That part makes them hesitate more than anything. ETA that we met the kids at Christmas and they are great. I think it would be best for them to stay with my brother if they can’t go back to their parents, but we will see what they decide to do. |
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