GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1991

CHAPTER 941

HOUSE BILL 192

AN ACT RECOMMENDED BY THE JUVENILE LAW STUDY COMMISSION TO ALLOW TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AFTER A PARENT HAS LEFT A CHILD IN FOSTER CARE FOR TWELVE MONTHS WITHOUT MAKING REASONABLE PROGRESS TOWARDS CORRECTING THE CONDITIONS THAT LED TO FOSTER CARE.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 7A-289.32(3) reads as rewritten:

"(3)      The parent has willfully left the child in foster care for more than 18 12 months without showing to the satisfaction of the court that reasonable progress under the circumstances has been made within 18 12 months in correcting those conditions which led to the removal of the child or without showing positive response within 18 12 months to the diligent efforts of a county Department of Social Services, a child-caring institution or licensed child-placing agency to encourage the parent to strengthen the parental relationship to the child or to make and follow through with constructive planning for the future of the child. Provided, however, that no parental rights shall be terminated for the sole reason that the parents are unable to care for the child on account of their poverty."

Sec. 2.  This act becomes effective October 1, 1992, and applies to cases filed on and after that date.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 14th day of July, 1992.

James C. Gardner

President of the Senate

Daniel Blue, Jr.

Speaker of the House of Representatives