Parental Compliance: Its Role in Terimination of Parental Rights Cases

This Article examines the current state of termination of parental rights law, along with the results of an appellate case review, an exploratory project, and an empirical investigation of decision-making related to these cases. Section I begins with an overview of termination of parental rights law. The focus of this section will be recent statutory changes in the area, highlighting some key differences between the former and the current law. In Section II, the focus shifts to a review of the foundations for the empirical study that will be described later in the Article. Section III more specifically addresses the main areas that will be explored in the empirical study, including descriptions of case plans, parental compliance with case plans, and the mental status of parents. Section IV describes the empirical study which addressed whether certain factors contribute to TPRs. Finally, sections V and VI discuss the conclusions that can be drawn from the empirical study