In re B.A.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia considered whether a circuit court properly removed B.A. from foster placement with petitioners, who had adopted B.A.'s sibling, based on the petitioners' financial and legal circumstances. The court held that consideration of those circumstances was permissible but that the circuit court failed to adequately apply the statutory sibling preference and analyze the effects of sibling separation. The court reversed and remanded with directions to conduct the required best-interests analysis and facilitate supervised visitation during remand.

Holdings

1. The circuit court appropriately considered petitioners' financial circumstances, including debts and child-support arrearages, as part of determining whether they were of good moral character, could properly maintain and educate the child, and whether adoption would serve B.A.'s best interests under West Virginia Code § 48-22-701(d).
2. A circuit court must expressly analyze the sibling preference in West Virginia Code § 49-4-111(e), including the effects of sibling separation and the children's best interests, before ordering removal of a child from the home of the child's sibling. The court must make appropriate findings, including the clear-and-convincing-evidence findings required by the statute when separation is maintained.
3. Petitioners waived their challenge to the limitation of the hearing to an opportunity to be heard without the right to present or cross-examine witnesses because their counsel agreed to that limitation below.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court properly considered petitioners' financial circumstances and M.B.'s child-support arrearages in determining whether petitioners could satisfy the statutory adoption requirements.
2. Whether the circuit court erred by failing to analyze West Virginia's sibling-preference statute and the best interests of B.A. before ordering his removal from the home of his adopted sibling.
3. Whether petitioners were entitled to present and cross-examine witnesses at the hearing on their motion to continue the foster placement.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded