“Attorney Seaver ensured Mom and her children’s safety during DCF’s inquiries with careful planning. The DCF investigation process was navigated with expertise, ensuring that the family’s rights were protected every step of the way.”
When the child is in a kinship placement there are numerous advantages to this arrangement. The first and most important is that “no one takes better care of their own, than their own”.
One advantage is eliminating the one-year time frame for DCF to find a child’s permanent plan.
The threat of losing the child during a possible adoption outside the family is lessened. When the child is with a relative and/or a family friend the important bond through visitation can be easily facilitated. Sometimes visitation occurs only once a week with a child in foster care. This visitation between the child and parent may only occur for an hour, supervised at a DCF office.
These conditions are not ideal for a child, parent, or DCF workers’ visit.
The child being with a grandparent, family member or friend can make it an easier path to unsupervised visitation. The increased visitation being unsupervised can then lead to ultimately overnights and custody to their unification with the parents. Grandparents should understand that it is important to act fast with DCF. v. This should be a major incentive to moving with lighting speed to get your grandchild out of the DCF Foster Care system.
Grandparents ran into a problem that they waited too long to get their grandchild out of foster care. DCF told the grandparents That the goal was “reunification” with the parents. The Grandparents agreed with the DCF goal of reunification. The grandparents did not take steps to get their grandchild out of foster care. The grandparents were under the mistaken belief that the child would go from foster care back to his parents shortly. Based on this erroneous belief the grandparents took no action and sat back and let the case unfold.
What the grandparents failed to understand is that within one-year DCF must tell the courts when the child is in foster care about a permanent plan for the child. The parents failed to make substantial progress to reunite with the child which was no fault of the grandparents. DCF then changed the goal from reunification to adoption. c
The goal of adoption by the foster parent was a complete shock to the grandparents. The child had been with the foster parents for over a year. According to DCF, the child had “bonded” with the foster parents. The grandparents were horrified at the prospect of not seeing the child after the adoption with the foster parents. The grandparents in good faith waited for the reunification that never came. The grandparents due to visiting the child monthly did get an open adoption to visit with the grandchild but this was after much hassle with DCF. The grandparents wanted to adopt the grandchild but did not take a more active role to accomplish this.
When your child is in DCF Foster Care take immediate steps to change this equation even if the goal is reunification. This will help to protect the child form being adoptive by a person outside the family and allow the grandparents to be a real factor in their grandchild’s life. The grandparents then frantically filled out many different forms of paperwork for kinship, custody, guardianship, etc. The grandparents continuously tried to get the grandchild placed with them once the goal by DCF had changed. DCF said it was “too late”. The grandparents were beyond upset, furious, and frustrated with this whole DCF “nightmare”. Do not allow this to happen to you us a grandparent. There are logical steps grandparents should take.
Whenever DCF takes custody of your grandchild, do everything possible to have the child from the get-go placed with you, highlighting your DCF grandparents rights. If for whatever reason you are declined by DCF, then swiftly change directions and get your grandchild placed with another family or friend. Do NOT sit back and wait for the parents to reunify with their child. This, unfortunately, may not happen. Guard against this by being aggressive, proactive, and relentless in your quest for your grandchild, fully exercising your parents rights against DCF.
Need Help Avoiding Grandparents ‘ DCF Horror Story? Call Attorney Seaver or Request Online A Consultation
DISCLAIMER
You find yourself in this situation, it’s advisable to seek legal representation from a qualified attorney, like those at the Law Office of Kevin Seaver, who can advocate for your rights and guide you through the complex process of a DCF investigation.
Remember that the ultimate goal of DCF is to ensure the safety and well-being of children while supporting families in crisis.
Please note that this article does not create an Attorney-Client relationship between our law firm and the reader and is provided for informational purposes only. Information in this article does not apply to all readers.
Readers should not rely on this information as legal advice and should seek specific counsel from the attorney based on personal circumstances. Thank you.
Kevin Patrick Seaver is a Massachusetts DCF Defense Lawyer who represents parents against false child abuse allegations.
Massachusetts DCF Defense Lawyer Kevin Seaver has been successfully fighting false child abuse allegations since 1991.
Dcf removed my granddaughter for me as I have guardians place with my ex-husband illegally took her on his home after a month and And placed her with her other grandparents who have No contact for five years Neither Her dad.Now stating they’re going to not reunification her with me have an attorney who has had no contact with me in four months I have no one to Turn to could you give me any kind of recommendations on how I could handle this as I live on disability I was given a quarter put attorney I have raise my granddaughter for the past nine years she was nine years old she wants to be with my side of the family she keeps telling Attorney lunch she wants to be with a couple who
I raised my granddaughter for 6 half years an they took her from my daughter and would not even give me a chance! I was willing to do anything!
What can I do
My newborn grand daughter was placed with me at birth. She’s now 15 months old has some neurological issues due to being born with fentanyl in her system and being premature. DCF is now trying to reunify with parents who did nothing but virtual things for the past 14 months, purposely stayed out of state until ICPC was filed. Parents haven’t worked in years but can afford $600 a week hotel suite. Action plan successful due to credit given for logging in to meetings, etc from cell phone. Drug screening unsupervised due to staffing issues related to covid. Grand daughter is attached to us and now we are hearing that reunification is a go, baby will be placed into daycare when reunified all day. Lot’s of concern from various clinicians working with baby on neurological concerns due to drug exposure. Feeling helpless and seriously concerned about baby’s safety.
Hello..
A question my grand daughter was placed with my older son and he now won’t let family see her I the grandmother had issues for over 15 years. But now I have changed my life and now upset that she placed with him we haven’t seen her like this weekend she was going to say with me because they were going to Vegas then they texted saying that they figured it out and she wasn’t coming over what can I do to see my grand. Daughter they keeped there children from me too his manipulating and I need to do something she’s not happy over there I just want to see her
My husband and I adopted 2 of my grandchildren. I have a 3rd one in DCF custody now. The caseworker allows supervised calls with me. They did a home study but declined it. The caseworker will not tell me why. I don’t know what to do from here. She said he will be put in a foster home or group home. He’s 14 years old. We don’t want to go through their broken adoption system again. We would do the permanent custody. The problem with fighting is that you get no information to know what to do. They tear families apart. I do not agree on outside family adoptions. This person has been in our lives for 14 years and is family. I called CPI the first couple of days and told them that we would give him a home. Never received a call. Three wks later my grandson called. I was in tears because you don’t know if they are safe. My worries were right. The first two homes he had to fight because the kid would not leave him alone. The took him to an evaluation for 3 days ACTS. He said he was scared to leave his room. He was being harassed by a gang of boy and didn’t sleep for the 3 days. It breaks my heart. When he was kicked out of the boys home he was in. I believe in my heart they had nowhere to place him and put him in a drug and mental home in Lake City, FL about 5 hours away. I didn’t find that out until 2 wks later. I’ve only been able to speak to him 3 times. People should not be cut off from their family no matter what. This is not better for the child it’s mentally messing them up. DCF doesn’t fight for what is best for the child. There is no way to fight this broken system.
I need a lawyer that will fight for Myself and my Husband to get my Granddaughter back.Her Mother is in prison so we asked a friend to take her but because there is some issues DCF want to move her somewhere else with stranger. I want to fight for my rights and get her back.
I’m a grandmother to two granddaughters taken by dcf from their parents. One of my grandkids was murdered in the care of the babysitter. And they removed all the kids from my son and his wife