In a complex case involving a mother in New York State who had a petition of neglect brought against her and a father in the State of Georgia, who had not been charged with neglect, a Bronx Family Court judge has ruled that the boy should be allowed to go to Georgia and stay with his father.
The 14 year old boy was removed from his mother's care nearly three years ago and has now been in five stranger foster care homes. Even though the boy wanted to live with his father, the father wanted the boy to live with him, and the mother consented to the boy living with his father, New York City's Administration for Children's Services opposed the move. On one occasion, the boy had arrived in Georgia by plane, only to be told he could not stay with his father and was put back on a plane to New York.
In it's December 21, 2012 decision, only released to the the public on January 18, the court stated that if failed "to see how ACS's plan to keep this 14 year old teenager in stranger foster care, in his fifth non-kinship foster home, until some unspecified time in the future, serves this child's best interests when he has a father, a non-respondent in this case, who can provide him with a safe, loving, and nurturing home."
ACS has 30 days to appeal the decision.
You can read the entire decision here.
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