A.T. v. Superior Court CA6

Filed 1/29/16 A.T. v. Superior Court CA6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

A.T., No. H042934 (Monterey County Petitioner, Super. Ct. No. J48004)

v.

THE SUPERIOR COURT OF MONTEREY

Respondent;

MONTEREY COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL & EMPLOYMENT SERVICES,

Real Party in Interest.

A.T. (hereinafter “mother”) has filed a petition for a writ of mandate in this court, challenging the juvenile court’s October 26, 2015 order terminating her family reunification services and setting a Welfare and Institutions Code1 section 366.26 hearing with respect to her daughter C.T., who has previously been declared a dependent of the court. Mother claims that the court erred in denying her additional reunification services.

1 All further statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS AND CASE On August 5, 2014, the Monterey County Department of Social and Employment Services (hereinafter “DSS” or “Department”) filed a section 300 petition on 10-month- old C.T., under section 300, subdivisions (b) (failure to protect) and (g) (no provision for support). Since 2010, the Department had received seven referrals for the family, alleging neglect of the children, substance abuse issues with the mother, and physical and emotional abuse of the children. At the August 6, 2014 detention hearing, the court found that C.T. was a person described in section 300, found that continued care by the parents would be detrimental, committed the child to the custody of the DSS, ordered drug testing for mother; and scheduled a jurisdictional/dispositional hearing for September 23, 2014. At the jurisdictional and dispositional hearing, the juvenile court adopted the recommendations of the Department and ordered that C.T. be adjudged a dependent child of the juvenile court; that C.T. be removed from the parents; that the mother be offered reunification services; that the father be denied reunification services pursuant to section 361.5 subdivisions (b)(10) and b)(11); and that the matter be set for three- and six-month review hearings. In preparation for the six-month review hearing, a status report was filed on March 13, 2015, recommending that the court maintain the dependency of C.T.; continue family reunification services to the mother; and set the matter for a twelve-month permanency review hearing on September 22, 2015. At the time of the hearing, mother had recently been incarcerated for three weeks from January 2015 through February 11, 2015 for violating her probation. She had tested positive for alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamines. Mother had entered Door to Hope on February 11, 2015, and had been actively been participating in therapeutic groups, individual counseling, and parenting classes. Mother had recently completed