philadelphia.cbslocal.com<\/a>
\nJune 19, 2013<\/p>\nThe New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that authorities can seek custody of a child, even where there\u2019s no evidence of abuse or neglect.<\/p>\n
The case involved a divorced Camden County mother of 9-year-old twin girls. In 2007, she asked New Jersey\u2019s Division of Child Protection and Permanency for help, claiming she was unable to care for the girls who had psychological and developmental disabilities and needed to be placed in residential care.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can turn to the Division for help, but it may come with a cost,\u201d says Diana Autin, executive director of Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey. The group filed an amicus brief in the case.<\/p>\n
Autin says under the court\u2019s ruling, the state can get custody of a child with behavior problems if it proves that the parent can\u2019t provide the type of services the child needs and the services are in the child\u2019s best interest. She says the division can get custody without using the state\u2019s abuse and neglect law.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could end with an award of custody to the division for at least six months, maybe even longer,\u201d says Autin. \u201cWe\u2019re going to encourage parents to get voluntary services from the division, because if the parent is then uncomfortable about what the parent wants to do, they can withdraw consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The twins\u2019 mother, identified as \u201cI.S.\u201d in the court ruling, went to child welfare seeking help. According to court papers, the department had received more than a dozen reports, including allegations of sexual abuse, but none were substantiated. Eventually the mother told authorities the girls needed residential care, which she was unable to provide.<\/p>\n
The court acknowledged no neglect or abuse by the mother, but gave custody to the state under New Jersey\u2019s abuse and neglect statute. After the girls got help, one daughter was returned to the mother. Custody of the second daughter was awarded to the father.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy seeking help,\u201d says Autin, \u201cshe lost custody of one of her children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Autin says parents who can afford the type of care a child with behavioral or psychological problems may need are unlikely to lose custody. She says the problem will arise when parents cannot afford the care and behavioral challenges become too much to bear.<\/p>\n
But there is good news: \u201cThey won\u2019t have to go on registry as committing child abuse,\u201d says Autin. \u201cAnd the state does not have unlimited power. They have to prove certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Autin recommends that parents who need the state to step in get help from a lawyer or advocate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cherri Gregg philadelphia.cbslocal.com June 19, 2013 The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that authorities can seek custody of a child, even where there\u2019s no evidence of abuse or neglect. The case involved a divorced Camden County mother of 9-year-old twin girls. In 2007, she asked New Jersey\u2019s Division of Child Protection and Permanency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}