In re Interest of Elvis T.

SUMMARY: Termination of the father’s parental rights was proper when, after receiving adequate services for two years, the father still did not have the necessary skills, and lacked the intellectual capacity, to parent the child. 

Elvis, DOB 5/3/06, is the child of Terry and Angela. After birth, Elvis was removed from the mother’s care. The mother eventually relinquished her rights. The child was adjudicated in part because the father had suspected borderline to mild mental retardation that prevented him of caring for the child. For almost two years, Terry participated in services, including individual therapy, supervised visitation and parenting classes. Recognizing Terry’s mental limitations, arrangements were made to supplement parenting classes with one-on-one individual sessions; however, Terry attended only half of the classes and none of the one-on-one sessions. His individual therapist focused on increasing judgment and problem-solving skills and improving parenting skills; however, the therapist testified that Terry’s progress was minimal and that he was not benefiting from the service. Terry consistently attended supervised visitation but often became distracted and struggled to apply parenting skills. The worker never felt it was safe to progress past fully supervised visits. A parental competency evaluator testified that Terry would not be able to independently parent the child or be able to respond to Elvis’ changing developmental needs.

The Court of Appeals upheld the termination of parental rights. In the best interests discussion, the Court acknowledged the appropriate services provided to Terry, DHHS efforts and Terry’s participation in those services. However, citing In re Marcus W. (“[w]hen a natural parent suffers from a mental deficiency and cannot be rehabilitated within a reasonable period of time, the best interests of the child require that a final disposition be made without delay”), the Court found that Terry failed to make significant improvements in his ability to parent and does not have the intellectual capacity to independently parent the child.