How Do You Terminate Parental Rights?

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• Grounds for Termination of Parental Rights
• Who Can Terminate Parental Rights?
• How to Terminate Parental Rights 
• Find Legal Help

Parents have legal rights and responsibilities in caring for their children. From making education and health care decisions to providing for a child’s daily needs, parents are responsible for all aspects of a child’s growth and development. The purpose of parental rights is to provide for the best interests of the child. Sometimes, however, a child’s best interests require that their parent’s rights be terminated so that the child can be put in the legal custody of someone else. 

Termination of parental rights means that the parent-child relationship has ended, and the parent no longer has legal rights over the child. Once parental rights are terminated, a parent can generally no longer: 

• Raise or provide for the well-being of the child  
• Be in contact with the child 
• Pay child support 
• Have a say in whether the child is adopted 

This article is an overview of the legal grounds and process for terminating parental rights. As Joseph P. Cadicina, a family law attorney at Cadacina Law in Morristown, New Jersey, says, “It’s a very involved process.” If you are facing termination of your rights as a parent, it’s essential to seek legal help from a family law attorney as soon as possible.  

Grounds for Termination of Parental Rights 

Every state has laws defining when parental rights can be terminated and the process for terminating those rights. While state laws vary, most states share general grounds for terminating parental rights. It’s helpful to divide the grounds for termination into two categories: Involuntary termination and voluntary termination. 

Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights 

To involuntarily terminate a parent’s parental rights, courts generally have to establish two things: 

1. Show through clear and convincing evidence that the parent is unfit to care for the child 
2. That it’s in the child’s best interests to terminate parental rights 

What do these criteria mean in practice? Some state laws set specific guidelines, while others are more open-ended in listing factors for the court to weigh in on. Generally, however, the following factors can be grounds for the involuntary termination of parental rights: 

• Severe or ongoing child abuse, including physical and emotional abuse  
• Sexual abuse, including sexual assault 
• A parent’s incapacity due to long-term mental illness or substance abuse  
• Neglect of the child’s physical or mental health 
• Failing to provide for the child’s welfare and education  
• Not staying in contact with the child  
• Long-term imprisonment for felony convictions that prevent the parent from caring for the child 
• No reasonable efforts at reunification with the child 

Voluntary Relinquishment of Parental Rights 

Sometimes, termination of parental rights isn’t involuntary. The primary example of voluntary relinquishment of parental rights is in adoption. For someone to adopt a child, the birth parent’s parental rights must first be terminated so the rights can be transferred to the adoptive parents. The adoptive parents then become the child’s legal parents.  

Adoptive parents may be family members of the child (such as a stepparent) or individuals unrelated to the child. By becoming the child’s legal parents, adoptive parents gain both physical and legal custody of the child.  

Who Can Terminate Parental Rights? 

A variety of individuals can take the legal steps necessary to terminate a parent’s rights: 

• Another parent 
• A family member 
• A legal guardian of the child 
• A child protective services (CPS) official petitioning the court for termination 

According to Cadicina, “Most of the time in New Jersey, for example, when we see the termination of parental rights, it’s the division of child protective services that initiates the proceeding.” It’s important to realize that terminating parental rights is a grave and rare matter. Thus, individuals who take steps to terminate someone else’s parental rights must be prepared to present evidence for the grounds for termination. 

How to Terminate Parental Rights 

The first step in terminating parental rights is for a party to initiate proceedings by submitting a petition for termination of parental rights to their local family court. Looking at the state’s statutory requirements, the court will consider whether one of the grounds for termination of parental rights has been met. 

The court will gather information through investigations and other fact-finding methods, such as witness interviews, to determine whether parental rights should be terminated. “There’s an investigation, and there also must be a hearing before the court can terminate an individual’s parental rights,” Cadicina says. “The timeframe for this process is typically several months.” 

If the court finds that a statutory ground for terminating parental rights is met, it will issue a court order terminating the parent’s rights. 

Find Legal Help

Many family law attorneys provide free consultations for potential clients, letting you get legal advice and better determine if you need legal help going forward. Once you have met with a lawyer and gotten your questions answered, you can begin an attorney-client relationship. Look for a family law attorney in the Super Lawyers directory for legal help. For more information about this area of law, see our family law overview.