Ruling balances child safety, families’ rights

That the Iowa Department of Human Services has been able to remove minors from parents' custody and into foster care with little or no judicial oversight is disturbing at best. That the family's continued separation might be based on stipulations outlined in a loosely regulated 'safety plan” is outright frightening.

We therefore applaud Sixth Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill for finding it unconstitutional for DHS to use such voluntary agreements when they interfere with custodial rights of a parent, or when they are initiated by a non-custodial parent or one without any established rights.

While we believe the DHS practice of entering into voluntary 'safety plans” with parents was implemented with the best of intentions - perhaps as a way of offering an immediate and less-stressful resolution to a temporarily unsafe home environment - the widespread use of these documents and lack of strict guidelines or adequate oversight has resulted in unacceptable, if unintended, consequences for too many Iowa families.

As disclosed as part of a recent Johnson County court case, a 5-year-old girl was placed in foster care after a non-custodial parent made unsubstantiated allegations of abuse, signing a 'voluntary foster care placement agreement.” The custodial parent was not notified and did not take part in the agreement.

Even after the allegations were proved false and an attorney, hired by the custodial parent, petitioned for return of the child, Iowa DHS refused.

Because of Thornhill's judgment, no more will such plans be used to remove or keep children from their home without the consent of a custodial parent. Further, they will not prevent a parent's contact with a child, or restrict access to a child by a parent who has not signed the agreement.

Thornhill's decision puts in place some much-needed boundaries on the agency's use of voluntary removals.

It is unconscionable to us that any child could be taken without his or her custodial parent's knowledge, consent or proper judicial review - with the checks, standards and legal rights those proceedings, rightly, require.

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