Helping You Protect the Children in Your Care
Although parents generally have primary responsibility for caring for their children, grandparents and foster parents play major roles in the lives of many children as well. If your ability to provide care and attention to a child is being threatened, you deserve an opportunity to make your case.
At Connolly & Shireman in Houston, our attorneys have extensive experience asserting foster parents' and grandparents' rights in Child Protective Services (CPS) cases and other Texas family law cases. Contact us to schedule a consultation.
Standing Up for Grandparents' Rights
When parents are unfit to care for their children due to substance abuse, mental health issues or other factors that lead to abuse or neglect of the children, it is very common for grandparents to want to step in, protect their grandchildren and take responsibility for their care.
In CPS cases, however, the courts decide where children are placed after being removed from their parents. Even when they have grandparents who are ready and willing to care for them, the courts can place them with foster parents, family acquaintances, or any other adult instead.
Another factor affecting grandparents in these cases is that if the parents of a child have their parental rights terminated, the grandparents may find that their rights to their grandchildren have been terminated as well.
It is important for grandparents to have an advocate they can rely on to give them skilled advice focused on the potential future consequences of that advice. We are highly experienced with these cases and have helped many grandparents assert their rights, gain custody and, when needed, adoption.
Asserting Foster Parents' Interests
Many people who agree to become foster parents hope to eventually adopt a child out of the foster care system. Even those who do not plan to adopt often develop close connections with the children in their care.
Sometimes, however, children are placed back in their parents' care out of the foster care system, even in cases where the foster parents have been told that the children will be eligible for adoption, and the parents may not want the children and the foster parents want to maintain a relationship.
Our lawyers regularly represent foster parents in these cases and others affecting their rights and interests in the child protective services system. Contact us to learn more about your options.
