In re S.P. and D.C.

Summary

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed the Mercer County Circuit Court’s order terminating petitioner mother L.C.’s parental, custodial, and guardianship rights to S.P. and D.C. The Court held that petitioner failed to substantially comply with her improvement period, continued to have substance-abuse and domestic-violence issues, and did not remedy the conditions of abuse and neglect. The Court concluded that termination was supported by the record and was in the children’s best interests.

Holdings

1. The circuit court did not abuse its discretion in denying an extension because Mother failed to substantially comply with the terms of her improvement period.
2. The circuit court properly terminated Mother's parental, custodial, and guardianship rights because there was no reasonable likelihood that she could substantially correct the conditions of abuse and neglect and reunification was not in the children's best interests.
3. Factual findings in an abuse and neglect case tried without a jury are not set aside unless clearly erroneous, while conclusions of law are reviewed de novo.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court abused its discretion by denying Mother an extension of her improvement period.
2. Whether the circuit court erred by terminating Mother's parental, custodial, and guardianship rights rather than imposing a less-restrictive dispositional alternative.

Disposition

affirmed