How can you protect your grandchild if the parents are missing, abusive or inadequate?

Recently I filed two petitions for private children in need of care.  In both cases, the parents were missing or neglectful.  I represent the grandparents.

“Child in Need of Care” is the term Kansas uses for foster children.  Normally, the state files those petitions.  That is how children are placed in foster care.

In Kansas, though, any person may file a petition.  The two that I filed recently were both on behalf of grandparents.  That way, instead of placing the child in foster care, the child can be put in the custody of the grandparents.

There are other ways to protect your grandchildren, such as guardianship and grandparents’ visits.  The tool which will best save your grandchildren depends on your unique circumstances.  Use the resource box on the right if you want to contact me about a child who needs protection.

I just returned from a trial for termination of parental rights.  The child is a one year old girl.  Her father has been absent most of her life.  Her mother is recovering from addiction to drugs.

My client is the child’s maternal grandmother.  We hope that the state will allow the grandmother to adopt her grandchild.  To help that happen, the mother voluntarily relinquished her parental rights.

Nothing can be as emotional as a mother relinquishing her parental rights to her child.  Whatever mistakes she previously made, today the mother was brave and selfless in placing the needs of her child ahead of her own.  When she returned from presenting her relinquishment, she fell crying into the arms of her child’s grandmother.