IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 13-1957
Filed March 12, 2014
IN THE INTEREST OF F.M.,
Minor Child,
D.M., Mother,
Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Cerro Gordo County, Annette L.
Boehlje, District Associate Judge.
A mother appeals the termination of her parental rights to her child.
AFFIRMED.
Richard N. Tompkins Jr., Mason City, for appellant mother.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Janet L. Hoffman, Assistant Attorney
General, Carlyle D. Dalen, County Attorney, and Nichole Benes, Assistant
County Attorney, for appellee State.
Mark Young, Mason City, attorney and guardian ad litem for minor child.
Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Mullins, JJ.
2
VAITHESWARAN, J.
A mother appeals the termination of her parental rights to her child, born in
2004.1 She contends the district court should have afforded her six additional
months to work toward reunification. On our de novo review, we disagree.
In 2011, the Department of Human Services received a complaint that the
mother used methamphetamine while caring for her child. The agency began an
investigation that resulted in a founded child abuse report. The mother agreed to
participate in services to address her addiction. The child remained in her care.
Almost one year later, the mother tested positive for methamphetamine in
her system. The State filed a petition to have the child adjudicated in need of
assistance. The petition was granted and services to the family continued, with
the child remaining in her parents’ home.
Meanwhile, earlier concerns about domestic violence resurfaced. The
child was removed from the parents’ care and was placed in foster care.
The mother continued to use methamphetamine. In mid-2013, more than
two years after the department initiated treatment services, the mother appeared
at a hearing while under the influence of methamphetamine. Shortly thereafter,
she was expelled from an inpatient substance abuse treatment program. This
was her second expulsion in as many years.
At the termination hearing, a service provider testified the mother’s
substance abuse issues remained “unresolved.” She cited the mother’s
admission to methamphetamine use just one week prior to the hearing. In her
view, there was no reason to extend the time for reunification.
1
The father consented to termination of his parental rights.
3
A department child protective worker seconded this opinion, noting the
absence of “significant progress” in the two years preceding the hearing. A
department social worker added that “substance abuse [was] a huge problem”
that precluded the child’s return to the mother’s care.
The mother did not dispute the social worker’s opinion or the vast majority
of the State’s evidence. She declined to attend most of the termination hearing
and, when she testified, she simply asked for a six-month extension. See Iowa
Code § 232.104(2)(b) (2013). The district court refused the request, reasoning
the mother “had over two years to address her methamphetamine problem” and
had “not been able to do so successfully yet.” The record fully supports this
conclusion and reasoning.
We affirm the district court’s termination of the mother’s parental rights to
the child.
AFFIRMED.