Background
The Arapahoe County Department of Human Services brought a dependency-and-neglect case after reports that one child was born drug-exposed and that the parents used marijuana and fentanyl while caring for their children. The juvenile court placed the children in foster care and later adjudicated them dependent or neglected as to their father after neither he nor his counsel appeared for the adjudication hearing.
Father’s treatment plans required, among other things, stable housing, substance-use treatment and testing, compliance with probation, parenting classes, family time, and lawful income. After the Department sought termination, father asserted that substance use disorder, ADHD, and prior PTSD treatment entitled him to ADA accommodations. The parties ultimately stipulated to a new treatment plan that included a neuropsychological evaluation, trauma-responsive treatment, life-skills support, child-parent psychotherapy, and a domestic-violence evaluation.
The Court’s Holding
The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the termination judgment. Assuming without deciding that father’s status as a qualified individual with a disability under the ADA was undisputed at the termination hearing, the court held that the Department made reasonable efforts to rehabilitate him, including reasonable accommodations reflected in the revised treatment plan.
The record supported the juvenile court’s finding that father made little or no progress despite those services. The Department arranged a neuropsychological evaluation, referred father to the HOPE Initiative and a life-skills worker, provided appointment reminders and written feedback, accommodated late arrivals, and convened case-professional meetings. But father did not complete the evaluation, minimally engaged with the life-skills worker, inconsistently participated in treatment, testing, family time, and meetings, lacked stable housing, and had active warrants after an unsuccessful probation discharge.
Key Takeaways
- ADA accommodations must be considered in assessing whether a department made reasonable reunification efforts.
- The Department’s efforts were reasonable where it provided requested and recommended supports, even though father did not consistently engage with them.
- A parent remains responsible for participating in services and completing the treatment plan.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that disability-related accommodations are part of the reasonable-efforts analysis in Colorado dependency cases. But accommodations do not require reversal when the agency provides meaningful tailored services and the parent does not use them consistently.