Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights - Idaho

Grounds for Termination of Parental Rights
Citation: Idaho Code § 16-2005

The court may grant an order terminating parental rights when it finds that termination of parental rights is in the best interests of the child and that one or more of the following conditions exist:

• The parent has abandoned the child.
• The parent has neglected or abused the child.
• The presumptive parent is not the biological parent of the child.
• The parent is unable to discharge parental responsibilities, and such inability will continue for a prolonged, indeterminate period and will be injurious to the health, morals, or well-being of the child.
• The parent has been incarcerated and is likely to remain incarcerated for a substantial period of time during the child's minority.
• The parent caused the child to be conceived as a result of rape, incest, lewd conduct with a minor child younger than age 16, or sexual abuse of a child younger than age 16.
• The following circumstances are present:
  • Abandonment, chronic abuse, or chronic neglect of the child
  • Sexual abuse against a child of the parent
  • Torture of a child; battery or an injury to a child that results in serious or great bodily injury to a child; or voluntary manslaughter of a child or aiding or abetting such voluntary manslaughter, soliciting such voluntary manslaughter, or attempting or conspiring to commit such voluntary manslaughter
  • The parent has committed murder, aided or abetted a murder, solicited a murder, or attempted or conspired to commit murder.
• The court determines the child to be an abandoned infant, except in a parental termination action brought by one parent against another parent.

Chronic neglect or chronic abuse of a child shall consist of abuse or neglect that is so extreme or repetitive as to indicate that continuing the relationship would result in unacceptable risk to the health and welfare of the child.

Timeframes for Termination Proceedings
Citation: Idaho Code § 16-1624

A petition to terminate parental rights shall be filed within 30 days of an order approving a permanency plan with a permanency goal of termination of parental rights and adoption.

Unless there are compelling reasons it would not be in the best interest of the child, the Department of Health and Welfare must file a petition to terminate parental rights within 30 days of a judicial determination that an infant has been abandoned or that reasonable efforts are not required because aggravated circumstances were present.

Exceptions 
Citation: Idaho Code § 16-2005

For terminations arising from a case filed pursuant to title 16 chapter 16, additional factors that inform what is in the best interests of the child, beyond those otherwise identified by the courts, include the following:

• The parent's efforts to improve the parent's capacity to safely reunify with the child
  • The parent's demonstrated ability to live a law-abiding life, except for infraction violations
  • When the child has formed a strong and positive bond with the child's substitute caretaker, the strong and positive bond has existed for a substantial portion of the child's life, the removal of the child from the substitute caretaker would likely cause serious psychological harm to the child, and the parent lacks the capacity to meet the needs of the child upon removal

The court shall not grant an order terminating the relationship based on the child's immunization status.

If the parent has a disability, the parent shall have the right to provide evidence to the court regarding the manner in which adaptive equipment or supportive services will enable the parent to carry out parenting responsibilities.

When Parental Rights May Be Reinstated

This issue is not addressed in the statutes reviewed.