SUMMARY: Termination of a mother’s parental rights was in the child’s best interest because the mother failed to meet case plan requirements, and the child had formed a positive relationship with a foster family willing to adopt. Further, signed reports prepared by caseworkers were acceptable and...

SUMMARY: The court found that the father’s “failure to intervene, when he was provided with substandard information, [did] not constitute abandonment,” and that the father’s use of the “automatic withdrawal payment process for child support” was not “a token effort, nor [did] it someone negatively...

SUMMARY: “To challenge a dispositional order entered by the juvenile court on the basis of an assertion that the permanency objection differs from the case plan proposed by DHHS and that such a ruling and plan so adopted is not the in the best interests of the children, [the parent] must present her...

SUMMARY: For the purposes of interpreting when DHHS is required to make reasonable efforts towards reunification under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-286.01, a family is defined as either the biological parents or a stepparent when such stepparent is married to the custodial parent at the time the petition is...

SUMMARY: Under § 43-285, the juvenile court has the authority to remove a case manager, “when after nearly a year of limited progress” the court ordered DHHS to “reassign th[e] case to an experienced case manager with demonstrated knowledge of incest cases and the needed treatment protocol to...

SUMMARY: A timely appeal of an order terminating parental rights may be allowed to proceed in forma pauperis when the motion is accompanied by a poverty affidavit that has been” properly made and authenticated, out of state before a person authorized to administer oaths in the place where the...

SUMMARY: The juvenile court properly exercised its emergency jurisdiction over Maxwell while one parent was incarcerated and the other parent was in alcohol treatment. Although there was a South Dakota custody order, the Nebraska court could continue its jurisdiction so long as the emergency...

SUMMARY: Even though the mother was “not at fault for her present situation and that she very much desire[d] [her daughter’s] return” the court recognized that “when a parent is unable or unwilling to rehabilitate himself or herself within a reasonable time, the best interests of the child require...

SUMMARY: The court upheld the juvenile court’s order terminating a father’s parental rights to both children where the child who suffered the alleged abuse was under the father’s care when the alleged abuse occurred. The injuries were of a type that would not have normally occurred in the absence of...

SUMMARY: “The stated purposes of the ICWA are best served by allowing parents to raise, in their direct appeal from a termination of parental rights, the issue of the State’s failure to notify the child’s Indian tribe of the termination of parental rights proceedings as required by § 43-1505(1).”...

SUMMARY: “The stated purposes of the ICWA are best served by allowing parents to raise, in their direct appeal from a termination of parental rights, the issue of the State’s failure to notify the child’s Indian tribe of the termination of parental rights proceedings as required by § 43-1505(1).”...

SUMMARY: The sole testimony of two caseworkers with limited firsthand knowledge of the mother’s progress did not sufficiently establish that termination was in the children’s best interests, such as evidence that adoption was a possibility or of the needs or interests of the children. On April 22...

SUMMARY: There was no merit in a challenged to the juvenile court’s suspension of a mother’s visitation, nor was there inadequate notice that DHHS was seeking suspension of visitation. The mother failed to make a written motion for continuance and supporting affidavit as required by law, but she...

SUMMARY: The juvenile court properly found a youth to be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and rejected the mother’s argument that any action or inaction on her part, regarding her other children, prior to this child’s birth could not be used by the State to prove that she had neglected...

SUMMARY: “When proceeding solely under § 43-292(7),” which requires that the child has been in out-of-home placement for 15 of the most recent 22 months, “the appellate court must be particularly diligent in its de novo review of whether termination is in the best interests of the child.” The mother...