C. Child’s Best Interests

People in the Interest of M.H., 855 P.2d 15 (Colo. App. 1993)
The third purpose is to make timely determinations that will serve the child’s best interests. Parents have a fundamental liberty interest in the care, custody, and management of their children. 

Due process is required to protect this interest. However, a parent’s right to due process is subject to the state’s power to act in the child’s best interests when necessary.

People in the Interest of L.A.G., 912 P.2d 1385 (Colo. 1996)
A child’s “best interests” under the Children’s Code is different than under other laws. 




C.R.S. § 19-1-102(1.5)(a)(1) and (II)
A child who has been removed from his or her home is entitled to the following guarantees:
  • To be placed in a secure and stable environment;
  • To not be indiscriminately moved from foster home to foster home; and
  • To have assurance of long-term permanency planning.
C.R.S. § 19-1-102(1.6)
C.R.S. § 19-1-123(1)(a) and (2)(a)
Permanency is expedited for children under the age of six. 





C.R.S. § 19-3-104

C.R.S. § 19-3-505(3)

C.R.S. § 19-3-508(1)
C.R.S. § 19-3-702(1)
C.R.S. § 19-3-703
Children undergo a critical attachment process in their early years. They may suffer significant emotional damage that could lead to mental illness and antisocial behavior if they do not bond with an adult. The state’s expedited permanency planning (EPP) laws are based upon the best interests of the child and require that:
  • The case not be delayed without a showing of good cause;
  • The adjudicatory trial be held within sixty days of the filing of the petition in dependency and neglect;
  • The dispositional hearing be held within thirty days of the adjudicatory hearing;
  • The permanency hearing be held within ninety days of the dispositional hearing; and
  • The child be placed in a permanent home within one year of the placement out of the home.

Many of these timelines begin to run when the parent appears or is summoned by the court to appear. Reports on the effectiveness of EPP laws and court compliance are made to the Joint Budget Committee and other legislative committees each year.

Bruce D. Perry,
Maltreated Children:  Experience, Brain Development and the Next Generation
(W.W. Norton & Company, New York 2000)
A child’s sense of time is much different than an adult’s, as is the impact of experience on the developing child’s brain. Six months in the life of a one-year-old represents half of that child’s total life, compared to only 1.2% in the total life of a forty-year-old. During that same six-month period, the child’s brain is 100 times more active than that of the forty-year-old! 

Children need permanency to grow up to be loving, trusting, and responsible adults. According to social science research, the likelihood a child will return home drops dramatically after the first year in foster care.

C.R.S. § 19-1-102(1.5)(a)(III)
42 U.S.C.A. 671(a)(15)(E)
Children must be assured of a long-term permanency plan.

The first priority is keeping children with their families. After removal, the goal changes to reunification. If children cannot safely return home, a plan for adoption or guardianship can offer the child a new family.

42 U.S.C.A. § 671(a)(15)(F)
C.R.S. § 19-3-508(7)
Plans to find the child another permanent home may be made at the same time as reunification efforts. 

This is called “concurrent planning.” The parties and the court should begin thinking about a permanent plan for the child from the first day of the case.



One foster youth has given a helpful description of permanency. “Unfortunately, foster children, who spend their lives searching for permanency, look for it in every other place. They look for continuity of address, for someone to love and hug them and for someone to share the same last name . . . Just a year ago, I attended a conference on implementing permanency at every stage in the foster care process . . . [when people were asked what is permanency] there were answers like security, love, acceptance and identity. All I could think was that permanency always meant something so much more concrete and totally different. To me it means having a place to go at the end of the day. It means knowing that this place would bring me relief from the world. It means sleeping in my own bed and having a snack if I want. It means having something and someone to fall back on:  adequate support systems—emotional, financial, scholastic, and mental.”
Amy Clay, 19-year-old foster youth and college student. 

42 U.S.C.A. § 671(a)(18)
42 U.S.C.A. § 1996b
Children may not have a placement denied or delayed because of race. 

Under the federal Multiethnic Placement Act, the state cannot discriminate in placement based on the child’s or foster- or adoptive- parent’s race, color or national origin. The only exception is under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which preserves ties to the child’s tribe.