Guardianship, adoption, and other outcomes

Guardianship

A guardianship gives a caregiver — often a relative — legal authority to make decisions for your child. Your parental rights are not terminated.

It is frequently the right ask when you cannot safely resume full-time care now but termination would be wrong for your child and your family.

Adoption and termination of parental rights

Adoption permanently transfers parental rights and generally follows an order terminating them. Termination is a separate proceeding with its own petition, its own hearing, and its own required findings — it is not an automatic consequence of a dependency.

The petitioner must prove specific statutory allegations and that termination is in your child’s best interests.

You can contest termination

• Present evidence of services completed and change sustained.
• Ask for more time where progress is real and recent.
• Propose guardianship with a relative as the alternative.
• Challenge whether the required efforts were actually made.

You are entitled to counsel in a termination proceeding. Do not face one without a lawyer.

Staying connected

Where reunification does not happen, continued contact may still be possible — through a guardianship, or through a written agreement for post-adoption contact. These arrangements have real legal limits and vary by case, so ask your lawyer what is enforceable rather than relying on an informal promise.