§10A-1-4-902. Termination motion or petition by district attorney.
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A. The district attorney shall file a petition or motion for termination of the parent-child relationship and parental rights with respect to a child or shall join in the petition or motion, if filed by the child’s attorney, in any of the following circumstances:
1. Prior to the end of the fifteenth month when a child has been placed in foster care by the Department of Human Services for fifteen
(15)of the most recent twenty-two
(22)months. For purposes of this paragraph, a child shall be considered to have entered foster care on the earlier of:
a. the date of adjudication as a deprived child, or
b. the date that is sixty
(60)days after the date on
which the child is removed from the home;
2. No later than sixty
(60)days after a child has been judicially determined to be an abandoned infant;
3. No later than sixty
(60)days after a court has determined that reasonable efforts to reunite are not required due to a felony conviction of a parent of any of the following acts:
a. permitting a child to participate in child sexual
abuse material,
b. rape, or rape by instrumentation,
c. lewd molestation of a child under sixteen
(16)years
of age,
d. child abuse or neglect,
e. enabling child abuse or neglect,
f. causing the death of a child as a result of the
physical or sexual abuse or chronic abuse or chronic
neglect of the child,
g. causing the death of a sibling of the child as a
result of the physical or sexual abuse or chronic
abuse or chronic neglect of the child’s sibling,
h. murder of any child or aiding or abetting, attempting,
conspiring in, or soliciting to commit murder of any
child,
i. voluntary manslaughter of any child,
j. a felony assault that has resulted in serious bodily
injury to the child or another child of the parent, or
k. murder or voluntary manslaughter of the child’s parent
or aiding or abetting, attempting, conspiring in, or
soliciting to commit murder of the child’s parent;
4. No later than ninety
(90)days after the court has ordered the individualized service plan if the parent has made no measurable progress in correcting the conditions which caused the child to be adjudicated deprived; or
5. After a period of fifteen
(15)months if a parent has not corrected the circumstances which led the child to be adjudicated to be a deprived child and if the court makes a finding pursuant to paragraph 16 of subsection B of Section 1-4-904 of this title.
B. If any of the following conditions exist, the district attorney is not required to file a petition as provided in subsection A of this section for a deprived child:
1. At the option of the Department or by order of the court, the child is properly being cared for by a relative;
2. The Department has documented a compelling reason for determining that filing a petition to terminate parental rights would not serve the best interests of the child that may include consideration of any of the following circumstances:
a. the parents or legal guardians have maintained a
relationship with the child and the child would
benefit from continuing this relationship,
b.
the child, who is twelve
(12)years of age or older,
objects to the termination of the parent-child legal
relationship,
c. the foster parents of the child are unable to adopt
the child because of exceptional circumstances which
do not include an unwillingness to accept legal
responsibility for the child but are willing and
capable of providing the child with a stable and
permanent environment, and the removal of the child
from the physical custody of the foster parents would
be seriously detrimental to the emotional well-being
of the child because the child has substantial
psychological ties to the foster parents,
d. the child is not capable of achieving stability if
placed in a family setting, or
e. the child is an unaccompanied, refugee minor and the
situation regarding the child involves international
legal issues or compelling foreign policy issues; or
3. The state has not provided to the family of the child, consistent with the time period in the state case plan, services that the state deems necessary for the safe return of the child to the child’s home, if reasonable efforts are required to be made with respect to the child. Added by Laws 1998, c. 421, § 15, emerg. eff. June 11, 1998. Amended by Laws 1999, c. 365, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1999; Laws 2002, c. 237, § 1, emerg. eff. May 9, 2002; Laws 2009, c. 233, § 33, emerg. eff. May 21, 2009. Renumbered from § 7003-4.7 of Title 10 by Laws 2009, c. 233, § 262, emerg. eff. May 21, 2009. Amended by Laws 2014, c. 382, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2014; Laws 2025, c. 375, § 4, eff. Nov. 1, 2025.