information for practice

Particularly with the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, Children and Youth agencies will be required to pursue terminations and adoptions for an increasing number of children in their care. Unfortunately, because termination of parental rights is pursued under a separate statute (the Adoption Law versus the Juvenile Act) and is litigated in a different court (Orphans Court versus Juvenile Court) most agencies concentrate on the differences between termination and dependency rather than the connections. Very often, agencies effectively abandon all of the previous work they have done and attempt to prove termination cases by representing in the termination proceeding all of the witnesses and testimony that has previously occurred in the dependency proceeding. This process is inefficient and counter productive. The purpose of the training is to (1) familiarize participants with what work product they have already accomplished in the dependency proceedings, (2) familiarize the participants with the specific requirements for termination of parental rights and (3) apply the concept of proving a termination case by use of the findings and court orders of the dependency proceedings.