26.3 Guidelines for Determining Grounds or Triggering Events for Termination of Parental Rights (TPR)

A petition to terminate the paternal rights of the child’s parent(s) shall be filed by the juvenile officer or the Children’s Division (CD) or if the petition is filed by another party, the Juvenile Officer or CD shall seek to be joined as a party to petition when the following grounds are present:

Child has been in foster care for at least fifteen of the most recent twenty-two months; or
A court of competent jurisdiction has determined the child to be an abandoned infant:
1. The parent has left the child under circumstances that the identity of the child was unknown and could not be ascertain, despite diligent searching, and the parent has not come forward to claim the child; or
2. The parent has, without good cause, left the child without any provision for parental support and without making arrangements to visit or communicate with the child, although able to do so; or
A court of competent jurisdiction has determined that the parent has:
1. Committed murder of another child of the parent; or
2. Committed voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent; or
3. Aided or abetted, attempted, conspired or solicited to commit such a murder or voluntary manslaughter; or
4. Committed a felony assault that resulted in serious bodily injury to the child or to another child of the parent.
The juvenile officer or the division may file a petition to terminate the parental rights of the child’s parent when it appears that one of the following exists:
1. The child has been abandoned for the purposes of this subdivision a ‘child’ means any child over one year of age at the time of filing of the petition. The court shall find that the child has been abandoned if, for a period of six months or longer:
  1. The parent has left the child under such circumstance that the identity of the child was unknown and could not be ascertained, despite diligent searching, and the parent has not come forward to claim the child; or
  2. The parent has, without good cause, left child without any provision for parental support and without making arrangements to visit or communicate with the child, although able to do so;
2. The child has been abused or neglected. In determining whether to terminate parental rights pursuant to this subdivision, the court shall consider and make findings on the following conditions or acts of the parent:
  1. A mental condition which is shown by competent evidence either to be permanent or such that there is no reasonable likelihood that the condition can be reversed and which renders the parent unable to knowingly provide the child the necessary care, custody and control;
  2. Chemical dependency which prevents the parent from consistently providing the necessary care, custody and control of the child which cannot be treated to enable the parent to consistently provide such care, custody and control;
  3. A severe act or recurrent acts of physical, emotional or sexual abuse toward the child or any child in the family by parent, including an act of incest, or by another under circumstances that indicate that the parent knew or should have known that such acts where being committed toward the child or any child in the family; or
  4. Repeated or continuous failure by the parent, although physically or financially able to provide the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or education as defined by law, or other care and control necessary for the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health and development.
3. The child has been under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for a period of one year, and the court finds that the conditions which led to the assumption of jurisdiction still persist, or condition of a potentially harmful nature continue to exist, that there is little likelihood that those conditions will be remedied at an early date so that the child can be returned to the parent in near future, or the continuation of the parent-child relationship greatly diminishes the child’s prospects for early integration into a stable and permanent home. In determining whether to terminate parental rights under this subdivision, the court shall consider and make findings on the following:
  1. Treatment Plan Compliances: The terms of a Written Service Agreement (WSA) plan entered into by the parent and the division and the extent to which the parties have made progress in complying with those terms;
  2. Efforts: The success or failure of the efforts of the juvenile division or other agency to aid the parent on a continuing basis in adjusting his circumstances or conduct to provide a proper home for the child;
  3. Mental Condition: A mental condition which is shown by competent evidence either to be permanent or such that there is no reasonable likelihood that the condition can be reversed and which renders the parent unable to knowingly provide the child the necessary care, custody and control;
  4. Chemical Dependency: such dependency which prevents the parent from consistently providing the necessary care, custody and control over the child and which cannot be treated so as to enable the parent to consistently provide such care, custody and control, or
4. The parent has been found guilty or pled guilty to a felony violation of chapter 566, RSMo, when the child or any child in the family was victim, or a violation of section 568.020, RSMo, when the “child or any child in the family was victim. As used in this subdivision, a ‘child’ means any person who was under eighteen years of age at the time of the crime and who resided with such parent or was related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity to such parent’ or;
5. The child was conceived and born as a result of forcible rape. When the biological father has pled guilty to, or is convicted of, the forcible rape of the birth mother, such a plea or conviction shall be conclusive evidence supporting the termination of the biological father’s parental rights; or
6. The parent is unfit to be a party to the parent and child relationship because of a consistent pattern of committing a specific abuse, including but not limited to, abuses as defined in section 455.010, RSMo, child abuse or section 455.0210, RSMo, child abuse or drug abuse before the child or of specific conditions directly relating to the parent and child relationship either of which are determined by the court to be of a duration or nature that renders the parent unable, for the reasonably foreseeable future, to care appropriately for the ongoing physical, mental or emotional needs of the child. It is presumed that to a parent is unfit to be a party to the parent-child relationship upon a showing that within a three-year period immediately prior to the termination adjudication, the parent’s parental rights to one or more other children were involuntarily terminated pursuant to subsection 2 or 3 of this section or subdivisions (1), (2), (3) or (4) of subsection 4 of this section or similar laws of other states.
7. The juvenile court may terminate the rights of a parent to a child upon a petition filed by the juvenile officer or the division, or to adoption case, by a prospective parent, if the court finds that the termination is in the best interest of the child and when it appears by clear, cogent and convincing evidence that grounds exist for termination pursuant to subsection 2, 3 or 4 of this section.

Chapter Memoranda History: (prior to 1/31/07)

CD06-32, CD06-53