The South Carolina Court of Appeals recently decided a case involving the request of a child’s former Foster Parents to adopt the child. The Court of Appeals decided that the former Foster Parents did not have the right to ask to adopt the child after they voluntarily allowed the child to leave their home and be placed with another family for adoption.
In Michael P. and Lisa P. v. Greenville County Department of Social Services, Michael and Lisa P. were the Foster Parents for a young child. After talking to DSS about adopting the child, Michael and Lisa decided to allow the child to be placed in another “pre-adoptive home” instead of keeping the child with them and seeking to adopt him themselves. Michael and Lisa’s decision was based in large part on the representations by the DSS caseworker that the child would be placed for adoption with a young couple and that they may be able to be involved with the child even after the adoption. Based on what they were told by DSS, they agreed to allow the child to be adopted by a younger, childless couple.
After the former Foster Parents agreed to allow the child to be placed in another home, DSS placed the child for adoption in the home of a single female.
When Michael and Lisa P. learned that the child had not been placed in a pre-adoptive home like the one that had been described to them, they filed an action in Family Court asking to be able to adopt the child or, if they could not adopt, to have custody of the child.
The Family Court said, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that Michael and Lisa P. no longer had the right to request custody of the child or to adopt the child. The Courts said that Michael and Lisa P. lost the right to ask for custody or adoption when they volutarily agreed to allow the child to leave their home and to be moved to another foster home.
The Court did note that Michael and Lisa P. had the opportunity to object to the removal of the child from their home for a period of 30 days after the child left. Because they did not object within that 30 day period, they lost the right to ask for custody or an adoption.
The lessons to be learned from this case are:
If you are a foster parent and agree to allow the child to leave your home, you will lose the right to ask for custody or to adopt the child. This applies even when DSS has made promises to you that they did not keep or told you information that was not true.
If DSS removes the child from your home against your wishes, you must file an objection to the removal. You will have a limited amount of time to file the objection and if you miss the deadline, you will lose your right to request custody or adoption. If you do file in time, you will have the ability to fight the decision of DSS and possibly have the child returned to your home.
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