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D.M. v. Walker County Department of Human Resources7/8/2005
C.W.H. ("the mother") and P.H. ("the father") appeal from a judgment terminating their parental rights to their two sons, four-year-old B.H. and two-year-old M.H. The children's maternal great aunt and great uncle, M.M. and D.M. (hereinafter referred to as "the aunt" and "the uncle," respectively), appeal from the same judgment, which also denied a joint petition in which the aunt and the parents had sought custody of the children.
The record on appeal and the testimony elicited at a September 13, 2004, final hearing in this matter revealed the following facts and procedural history. The Walker County Department of Human Resources ("DHR") became involved with the family in 2001 when DHR received a child abuse/neglect report regarding the parents' care of B.H., who was 14 days old at that time. The testimony presented at the September 13, 2004, final hearing did not indicate whether DHR determined whether that report had merit.
Tracy Norwood, a DHR social worker , became involved with the family on an ongoing basis in October 2002. At that time, she investigated an incident in which B.H.'s safety had been jeopardized when the mother and father engaged in a physical altercation while the mother was holding B.H. That incident resulted in the father's arrest on a charge of domestic violence; the father was later convicted on that charge. Norwood devised a safety plan on October 22, 2002, requiring the mother and B.H. to live with a relative and to stay away from the father until DHR could implement services for the family. The mother agreed to the safety plan but violated its terms only three days later, on October 25, 2002, by leaving her relative's home and walking in the rain to meet the father with B.H., who was then approximately 16 months old. Subsequently, with the mother's consent, DHR placed the child in a temporary shelter and later with another relative of the mother's.
Both parents have limited intellectual functioning. The father's IQ is in the 60s; the evidence pertaining to the mother's IQ indicated that it was in the range of the 70s to the mid-80s.
DHR provided the parents with parenting classes, psychological evaluations, and housekeeping and hygiene training approximately two to three times per week. In addition, DHR provided financial services, including the payment of rent and utilities, and arranged for people in the community to donate various household items to assist the parents in furnishing their home. Norwood testified that the parents were initially very cooperative with DHR and that they completed the parenting classes, participated in psychological evaluations, and were referred to counseling.
B.H. was returned to the parents' custody approximately one week before the mother went into premature labor with her second child, M.H., who was born on December 12, 2002. M.H. spent almost two months in the hospital after his birth. After observing the interaction between the parents and their premature infant son, hospital personnel recommended to DHR that M.H. not be released into the parents' care.
Norwood initially contacted the aunt and uncle about whether they might provide a home for M.H. upon his release from the hospital because of his medical condition and his specialized health-related needs. During the time that M.H. was in the hospital following his birth, DHR received another report concerning B.H.; in January 2003, while unsupervised, B.H. had been burned when he fell against a heater. During the same time period, the father was arrested for nonpayment of a fine imposed pursuant to his 2002 conviction on the domestic-violence charge. On January 19, 2003, before M.H. was released from the hospital, Norwood a
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