In re A.H.
| Docket Number | 02-23-00348-CV |
| Decision Date | 18 January 2024 |
| Parties | In the Interest of A.H. and K.H., Children |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
1
In the Interest of A.H. and K.H., Children
No. 02-23-00348-CV
Court of Appeals of Texas, Second District, Fort Worth
January 18, 2024
On Appeal from the 322nd District Court Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 322-690431-20
Before Birdwell, Bassel, and Womack, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Dana Womack Justice
I. INTRODUCTION
In this appeal, Appellant M.H. (Mother) appeals the trial court's order terminating her parental rights to her children A.H. (Alexa) and K.H. (Kyle).[1] The trial court found that the Department of Family and Protective Services (the Department) had proved two conduct-based grounds for termination against Mother and that termination of her parental rights was in Alexa's and Kyle's best interests. See Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 161.001(b)(1)(D), (E), (2). In her sole issue, Mother contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court's bestinterest findings. Because legally and factually sufficient evidence supports the trial court's best-interest findings, we will affirm the trial court's termination order.
II. BACKGROUND
A. Alexa's and Kyle's Births, Their Removal and Placement in a General Residential Operation, and the Department's Involvement
Alexa was born in April 2018. In November 2018, the Department filed a petition seeking the termination of Mother's parental rights to Alexa and to Alexa's two older siblings, A.D.H. (Anthony) and A.T.H. (Aaron). That same month, the Department removed Alexa, Anthony, and Aaron from Mother's care.[2] Around that
time, Alexa was placed in a general residential operation (GRO) with Anthony and Aaron.
Kyle was born in May 2019. In August 2019, the Department filed an amended petition in which it also sought termination of Mother's parental rights to Kyle. That same month, the Department removed Kyle from Mother's care and placed him in the same GRO as Alexa, Anthony, and Aaron.[3] In October 2020, the case involving Anthony and Aaron was severed from the case involving Alexa and Kyle. Around that same time, the Department placed Anthony and Aaron with an aunt.
The Department's plan for Alexa and Kyle was family reunification. To that end, the Department filed a motion for monitored return of Alexa and Kyle in February 2021; the trial court granted the motion. Incidents that occurred in February and April 2021, however, derailed the Department's plan for reunification. Aaron made an outcry that during an unsupervised visit with Mother, she had been driving while intoxicated and had fallen asleep while in a drive-through. Aaron also
indicated that during a weekend stay with Mother, the children had only been fed once. During another incident, Mother's vehicle crashed into a gate while she was picking up Anthony from school; Mother left Anthony at the school while she went to have her vehicle looked at, leaving him at the school until evening.[4] Due to these incidents, the Department filed a motion to end the monitored return, and the trial court signed an order ending the monitored return in May 2021. In June 2021, the trial court appointed the Department permanent managing conservator of Alexa and Kyle without terminating Mother's parental rights.
B. Mother's History of Drug Use, Her Attempts to Complete Services, and Her Continued Drug Use and Failure to Submit to Drug Testing
Demetria Jackson, a permanency specialist[5] employed by Our Community Our Kids (OCOK),[6] was assigned to the case from December 2019 until September 2022. During the termination trial, Jackson testified that Mother had a lengthy drug history-"20-plus years"-and that during that history, Mother's drugs of choice had been cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine. The Department requested that
Mother complete certain services to help her with her drug problems and to help her become a better parent. Jackson testified that Mother had completed the majority of the services requested by the Department, including completing multiple drug-and-alcohol assessments, outpatient services, counseling, parenting classes, and FOCUS for Mothers classes. Jackson also stated that Mother had participated in the majority of her visits with Alexa and Kyle and that Mother was appropriate during those visits.
While Mother completed a majority of her services, her problems with drugs and alcohol remained. In November 2020, the urine sample that Mother submitted for drug testing was outside of the temperature range required for the test. In 2021- while Mother was receiving outpatient treatment for her drug-and-alcohol problems-she had "slipup[s]" where she used cocaine and alcohol. Mother also told Jackson that she had relapsed in June or July 2022, admitting to using cocaine and opiates. Moreover, Jackson testified that Mother did not comply with requested drug tests in July and August 2022. Mother told Jackson that she could not take these tests because she was busy working. Jackson had been to Mother's place of employment on a day that Mother had indicated she was working, and Jackson was told that Mother was not at work. When Jackson confronted Mother with that fact, Mother became "very upset." Jackson stated that later that month, Mother tested "positive for drugs."[7] When confronted about one of her relapses, Mother told Jackson that
she had relapsed because "she had a lot going on, and there w[ere] a lot of deaths in her family."
K.H. (Father)[8] had his own drug problems, and Mother continued her relationship with him following Alexa's and Kyle's removals. Jackson stated that Father had tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamine during the Department's involvement in the case. When approached about those results, Father explained that he had tested positive because he was "dealing drugs and also . . . around people that used drugs." Father later stopped submitting to the drug tests requested by the Department. Mother admitted to Jackson that she was still in a relationship with Father, noting that they were still married and that she did not believe in divorce. Jackson stated that Mother and Father had arrived at visits in the same vehicle and that she had seen Father's vehicle at Mother's home when she had made unannounced visits to the home.
Rochelia Jenkins, a permanency specialist with OCOK, was assigned the case from September 2022 until June 2023.[9] Jenkins testified that when she received the case, Mother was not engaging in services because she did not think that she would get Alexa and Kyle back. Jenkins requested drug tests from Mother every month that
Jenkins was assigned to the case, but Mother did not comply with any of Jenkins's requests. Mother told Jenkins that she was not taking the drug tests; she explained that "they would be positive because there's a lot of stressful things going on in her life[] and [that drugs] numb[ed] the pain." Mother indicated that the tests would be positive for cocaine and marijuana. Jenkins suggested that Mother complete another drug assessment; Mother, however, never followed up regarding that drug assessment. In January 2023, Mother also admitted to Jenkins that she was pregnant and that she had used cocaine and marijuana the previous week.
Kamisha Knight, a permanency specialist employed by OCOK, was assigned the case after Jenkins left OCOK in June 2023. Knight testified that Mother had not complied with any requested drug screenings since Knight was assigned the case, noting that Mother had not submitted to a requested drug test since September 2022. Knight stated that Mother had wanted to participate in services from an organization called Recovery Resource, and Knight had told Mother that she needed to submit to drug testing in order to get into the Recovery Resource program. Despite that conversation, Mother still did not submit to drug testing. Knight also testified that Mother had missed three visits with Alexa and Kyle in the short time that Knight had been assigned the case. Mother told Knight that she had missed two of the visits
because "it was too hot to go to Weatherford" and that she had missed the other visit because "she didn't have anybody to sit with her grandmother."[10]
C. The Department's Attempts to Place Alexa and Kyle, Alexa's and Kyle's Stays at the GRO, and the Department's Plans for Alexa and Kyle
Throughout the Department's case,[11] both Mother and Father offered numerous potential placements for Alexa and Kyle. The Department investigated these potential placement options to no avail. The aunt who was caring for Anthony and Aaron was not interested in taking Alexa and Kyle. Alexa and Kyle's paternal grandmother was also considered as a placement option, but she had health concerns and later asked the Department to stop contacting her. One of Father's cousins was also considered as a placement option. The Department did two home studies on the cousin, and the cousin had unsupervised visits with Alexa and Kyle to prepare them for placement. The cousin, however, twice backed out of caring for Alexa and Kyle, started failing to pick them up for visits, and eventually stopped taking phone calls from the Department's caseworkers.
A woman who worked for the entity associated with Alexa and Kyle's GRO was also considered. While that woman was initially a viable placement option, the
Department attempted to exhaust placement options with Alexa and Kyle's family members before considering the woman. When the family options did not pan out, the Department reached out again to the woman, but she was no longer interested. The Department also considered as placement options numerous friends and acquaintances suggested by Mother and Father, but those placement options failed for a variety of reasons. All potential placement options were exhausted by the Department, with none of them coming to fruition. Thus, Alexa and Kyle have remained at the GRO.
As to Alexa's and...
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