Opinion
No. 6-181 / 06-0197
Filed March 29, 2006
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Mary J. Sokolovske, Judge.
A mother appeals the termination of her parental rights to her two children. AFFIRMED.
Molly Vakulskas Joly of Vakulskas Law Firm, P.C., Sioux City, for appellant.
Joseph Flannery, Le Mars, for appellee-father.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Katherine S. Miller-Todd, Assistant Attorney General, Thomas S. Mullin, County Attorney, and Dewey Sloan, Assistant County Attorney for appellee-State.
Lesley Rynell, Juvenile Law Center, Sioux City, for minor child.
Considered by Huitink, P.J., and Vaitheswaran and Eisenhauer, JJ.
Carrie appeals the termination of her parental right to Trace, born in 2001, and Jasmine, born in 2004. She contends (1) the State did not prove the grounds for termination and (2) the Department of Human Services did not make reasonable efforts to reunify her with her children. On our de novo review, we disagree.
1. Grounds for Termination.
The district court terminated Carrie's parental rights pursuant to several code provisions including Iowa Code §§ 232.116(1)(f) (child four or older cannot be returned to parent's custody) and (h) (2005) (child three or younger cannot be returned to parent's custody.) We find clear and convincing evidence to support the elements of these provisions. See In re A.J., 553 N.W.2d 909, 911 (Iowa Ct.App. 1996) (stating we may affirm if there is clear and convincing evidence to support termination under any of the grounds cited by the district court).
The children were removed from Carrie's care after the health department found high levels of lead in Trace's system, for a second time. The first time, Carrie and her son were moved to alternate housing, but Carrie chose to return to the lead-poisoned home. By now, she had given birth to Jasmine.
Following the children's removal, the Department of Human Services staff expressed concerns about a variety of issues relating to their welfare. A Department employee testified "there were a lot of concerns about [Carrie's] overall ability to parent the children: decisions that she made about the people that were in and out of her home, lack of housing stability, financial stability, substance abuse issues."
Carrie conceded she would need time to stabilize her life. At the termination hearing, she testified she would be able to care for the children within "[a] couple months." Based on Carrie's admission that she could not immediately reunify with the children, we conclude the State satisfied its burden of proof.
2. Reasonable Efforts.
The Department must exert reasonable efforts toward reunification. In re C.B., 611 N.W.2d 489, 492-93 (Iowa 2000).
The Department made such efforts. After the children were removed from Carrie's care, the Department arranged for supervised visitation and referred Carrie to a substance abuse treatment center and to a service provider for therapy, parent skill development, supervision services, and a psychosocial evaluation. Some of these services were discontinued due to lack of attendance.
We recognize that the Department did not afford Carrie transportation assistance to facilitate her participation in services. Carrie, however, did not insist that the Department furnish this service. Several months after the children's removal, she advised a service provider that transportation was no longer an issue. For this reason, we conclude that the Department's failure to furnish transportation assistance did not amount to a failure to satisfy its reasonable efforts obligation.
We affirm the termination of Carrie's parental rights to Trace and Jasmine.