As far as I know, In Mass either DCF has to go to court to terminate the rights or parents can voluntarily sign away their rights. I think my gs's bio dad would, but my daughter never will. So I live in the limbo stage just waiting for her to take me to court to get him back.

In my book Born into Love, I researched Constitutional rights of parents, both Federal and State. NO STATE IN THE HAS DETERMINED WHAT MAKES A PARENT FIT OR UNFIT. There is nothing in our country's Constitution that states parents have rights. HOWEVER, the courts have traditionally favored the rights of the parents. The only way to change this is by Constitutional Amendment which takes years to obtain and is based on precedent setting cases. Check parental rights.org who is trying to do this. I spoke to their Constitutional Scholar for my information. This being said, state courts are beginning to listen. The State will call for investigation by DCFS and probably by a State appointed GAL. You need a lawyer who specializes in family law to present your case. Guardianship will not protect you. You need to have full custody appointed by the court. Guardianship is different from custody. Custody removes parents rights temporarily. In your case, your grandchild with serious illness may be the key. Again a competent attorney should be contacted regarding best interest of child.

We live in Indiana. Our dd was in trouble constantly, we consulted a family lawyer. She told us to document everything and call her when we were ready to get off the rollercoaster. At this time, our dd lived with us and always threatened to take gd and live on the street if we tried to interfere with her lifestyle. Eventually, it got so bad we told dd to leave, she left gd claiming to return in the morning for her and never did. We went ahead with the emergency guardianship (90 days) and then went to court for guardianship to which we were awarded.

I realize guardianship is not permanent but it is enough that we would need to go to court in order to change it. At this time, that's enough for me. I figure if our dd is determined enough to go to court and let herself be investigated (we would demand hair follicle testing and I still document every interaction, take screen shots of texts, fb, etc. and she's only seen gd once in 2 years) , then I might have some peace of mind.

Child protection was involved twice with our gd. Once at birth, she had drugs in her system, they did very little. The second time is when husband and I were on vacation in Northern MN and our dd assaulted her bf (gd's father) in gd's presence (gd had a cut on her head, both parents denied she was injured in the fight even though the wound was bleeding when they arrived). Dd was arrested, had an order of protection, she could not be with gd or her bf...was convicted and AGAIN, child protection did little. To which, our lawyer said, it was because they resided in our home and we told child protection and the police we (husband and I) would protect gd at all costs.

it's interesting I was about to write on this same topic. What everyone must know is that there is a law that states that if a guardian has a child in their custody for 2 years and the parents haven't made an attempt to regain custody the guardians have the right to file to terminate without the burden of finding the parents unfit.

I live in California, and I was told once DCFS was involved I had to wait for them to do the Termination process. It took almost 2 yrs for us and neither bio contested. My son the father has seizures and wasn't able to care for my GS and the bio mom who had custody was mentally ill and was living on the streets of LA, California where a person saw that the bio mom was sleeping on the streets with a 3 mth old infant and called DCFS. She signed over when they finally found her over a year later in a mental hospital. We never had to deal with her visiting and causing problems. My son loved his son enough to know that we could do better for his son because he couldn't drive and our GS needs lots of therapy and has many medical appts. I feel for you all who has to deal with the bio parents who are selfish and don't think about what is best for the child just themselves and drugs. It seemed like it took forever for DCFS to get to removing parent's rights we went to 3 hearings where DCFS didn't have their paperwork done and it only delayed things. They knew that the adoption was consented by parent's. Plus, the Children's Courthouse is so full and every hearing was 6 mths later...

dianaconroy: Can you please send a link or direct me towards this specific info about 2 years, guardianship etc. I surely would like to pursue this, but need concrete written documentation. Perhaps others here would also benefit. Thank you.

Yes, I'd like to know more about this too. Is this a state or federal thing ? We live in PA.

Just remember that custody isdetermined bt the State and each state has their set of laws. You can also seek help from your congressman regarding stte laws, also go yo your state supreme court website and research grandparent cases which will give you an idea of how the courts are leaning. I repeat that in your case i believe it would come down to best intetest of child. Because of her illness.

We're going to go for adoption very soon, which will automatically terminate Pinky's rights. In NJ those rights can be terminated if there is NO contact for one year. But even a birthday card can count as contact. Grrrrr.

So far Pinky has said that she will go along with it, since it is being done for Social Security benefits. (I hate doing this, but we haven't gotten a dime in child support from any bio and could not have anyway - and the only way the kids can get benefits is if we adopt them.) In their case nothing will change; they will still have our last name, Pinky will still be Pinky, etc. etc. The kids are fine with it after thinking and talking about it for more than a year, so we're confident we should move forward.

In Ohio parental rights can be terminated without parents approval after 2 years in the system with childrens services and parents haven't followed the case plan. If a parent hasn't had any contact whatsoever with child for one year, rights can be terminated without parent approval if children services were not involved. I gained custody although children services were not involved by hiring an attorney and seeking custody. I also adopted childrent 5 years later without parents approval based on the no contact by fathers and limited contact by mother. Once custody is established, the parent has to take you to court and PROVE the child would be better off living with them to get custody back. The Judge would take into consideration how long the child lived with you, the child's wishes if they are old enough to express them, how involved the parent had been in the child's life etc. etc. etc.

The things that are fact are that each state is different, in most cases the parent reappears just when you think they're gone, the child must be old enough to say who they want to e with, the burden on you is to prove why you should have custody and the judge will make the final decision. Once you have custody, the parents still can go to court and challenge. In our case the lawyers, GAL, ( both private and State) and the judge were in favor of us getting custody. The judge told the attorneys "give me the law so I can find in your favor". Our grandson was being abused in ways it was hard to prove. There is a law in our state that says grandparents have the right to visitation if the bio parent (our daughter) is deceased. The parents refused visitation and eventually took grandson over state line to avoid visits. Even with all of this the court gave parents visitation rights! There is a Federal law called Fostering Connections you should read. Again check you state supreme court for opinions on grandparents.

I just started a class on children and domestic violence. If there is any abuse or violence between parents the courts are beginning to look at the effects on children which can be considered abusive and can endanger parental rights. I would suggest you research children and the effects of do.rustic/parental abuse. There may be some precedence in cases that you can use to support your cases. In the case of a Fairchild, the stress caused by parents may be abusive to the child.