Opinion
No. 4-281 / 04-0423
May 14, 2004.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Alan D. Allbee, Associate Juvenile Judge.
A mother appeals the termination of her parental rights. AFFIRMED.
Richard Pazdernik, Cedar Rapids, for appellant-mother.
Thomas Miller, Attorney General, Tabitha Gardner, Assistant Attorney General, Tom Ferguson, County Attorney, and Steven Halbach, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee-State.
Linda Hall, Waterloo, for father.
R. Sheerer, Cedar Falls, for maternal grandparent.
Carter Stevens, Waterloo, for paternal grandparent.
Andrew Thalacker, Juvenile Public Defender, Waterloo, guardian ad litem for the children.
Considered by Vogel, P.J., and Hecht and Vaitheswaran, JJ.
Beth is the mother of Dylan (D.O.B.: 2/2/1998), Destiny (D.O.B.: 2/27/1999), and Willow (D.O.B.: 9/28/2002). Beth is addicted to methamphetamine.
The children were removed from Beth's care after she failed to pick them up from a babysitter. Ultimately, her parental rights to these children were terminated and she appealed.
Beth contends that the State did not prove the grounds for termination on which it relied. See Iowa Code §§ 232.116(1)(f), (h) (child cannot be returned), (g) (lack of ability or willingness to respond to corrective services), and (l) (severe and chronic substance abuse). She also claims termination is not in the children's best interests. On our de novo review, we disagree.
The juvenile court thoroughly summarized Beth's long standing substance abuse problems. These problems led to the commencement of child in need of assistance proceedings with respect to two older children who are not the subject of this action, and the termination of her parental rights to one of them in 1996. They also precipitated the removal of Dylan, Destiny, and Willow in 2002.
At the hearing, Beth essentially conceded she was not ready to have the children returned to her immediately, stating "I would like to see the Court grant me some more time." In addition, a service provider who supervised visits and served as a therapist testified,
Beth has not progressed to understanding the relationship between her behaviors and getting her children back. She continues to blame people for her actions. She does not take responsibility for her actions and switches who she will blame, and she does not follow through, especially with substance abuse treatment.
This testimony establishes that termination was warranted under Iowa Code sections 232.116(1)(f) and (h) (children cannot be returned). See In re A.J., 553 N.W.2d 909, 911 (Iowa Ct.App. 1996) (permitting affirmance on any ground cited by the juvenile court).
We acknowledge Beth had "[g]enerally appropriate" interactions with her children and "adequate" to "good" parenting skills. However, according to the service provider, she missed two of four visits in November 2003, three of seven in December 2003, one of four in January 2004, and one of four in the month of the termination hearing. She also missed eleven of twenty-four meetings with a provider of family-centered services.
We have also considered the documented evidence of Beth's sobriety during the four months preceding the termination hearing. A countervailing consideration is the fact that her substance abuse problem has spanned more than twenty years. The Department of Human Services began furnishing drug treatment services well over a decade ago and reinitiated services after Dylan, Destiny, and Willow were removed. Despite these services, Beth relapsed in July and October 2003.
In light of this evidence, we agree with the juvenile court that Beth's most recent efforts at sobriety came "too late in the case to be sufficient for the court to continue reunification efforts." For the same reason, we agree that termination is in these children's best interests.