How do I terminate parental rights?

In Pennsylvania, parental rights can be terminated voluntarily or involuntarily. In order to terminate parental rights voluntarily, the birth parent or parents must sign a Voluntary Relinquishment of Parental Rights form, surrendering all parental rights and obligations. This form must be signed in front of two witnesses, notarized, and then filed with the court. Involuntary termination of parental rights is more complicated. This can happen if a child has had an open child-protective services case for over six months, and there has been an unsuccessful attempt to reunify the child with their parents. In these situations, the judge can terminate the parental rights and allow a child to be legally adopted. For this to happen, the court must consider factors such as the length of time the child has been in foster care, the reasonable efforts made by the agency to reunify the family, whether the parents have made substantial progress in overcoming the issues that led to the foster placement, and the probability that the children would be returned home in reasonable time. The court must also find that termination of parental rights is in the best interests of the child.

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