Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn

Alcohol or drug abuse by parents can have a significant impact on the outcome of a Brooklyn child custody claim. Many times, such issues are at the root of why the claim was brought in the first place.

But drug use or even abuse alone is not ground enough to terminate a person’s parental rights. Brooklyn ACS attorneys know that the courts will be looking closely at the impact that substance abuse has had on the child, the parent’s ability to meet the child’s needs and whether the parent has taken steps to curtail his or her use.

The recent case of In re Interest of J.S., before the Iowa Supreme Court, underscored that a parent’s status as an addict alone is not grounds enough on which to adjudicate a child as one in need of state assistance, which is the first step in potential termination of parental rights.

According to court records, the case involves a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old whose mother had, according to state social workers, used methamphetamine intravenously while caring for her daughters. The social worker indicated that the residence maintained by the mother for the girls was clean, and the mother appeared to be “very nurturing” to the 9-year-old. The younger girl was staying with her grandmother in order to finish her school year.

The mother indicated that she had retained a retail store job, but was fired when she and her daughter became sick and she missed too much work.