Visitation Rights When a Child is Placed With a Guardian Due to Parents' Addiction

My question involves guardianship in the State of: Massachusetts

So myself and my husband signed over temporary guardianship because we wanted to get help with getting ourselves clean snd sober. We reached out for help because we knew te kids didbt deserve to live like that. So we have been clean/sober for 6 months. We have drug tests proving so and we just took a hair follicle to prove to DCF and the people who have our kids we are clean. We have little tiny numbers showing up on our drug tests but its not even close to the cut off range to make it positive. Example oxycodone cut off range is 1000. And our number is <0.3. So as you can see its such a tiny number so because everyone is accusing us of using we did a hair follicle. We did this for ourselves and for dcf but most of all so when we do go back to court we can show the judge we have been clean.

The people who have our kids are making it extrenely difficult for us o get our kids back..there talking keeping them for another year. My husband and i are in parenting classes, early recovery classes, and individual counceling classes we both also work. Husband works full time i work around 24-30hrs a week. I dont know what to do because we are doing EVERYTHING DCF is asking us to do. We just recieved our service plan a month ago and we started doing all our classes on our own. We also just made a relapse prevention plan. Does anyone have ANY advice. We did file to get a court appointed lawyer. Also the girl who has our youngest child very rarely lets us see our daughter..she wants every single copy of our drug test and if we even miss giving her one drug test she will pull our visit away & my suboxone doctor changed our format because the numbers kept showing up, so instead pf numbers showing up all it says negative and suboxone is the ONLY thing that shows up positive.

Now the grl who has my youngest said that drug test wont be acceptable ad that if i dont get the other format that we wont be able to see our daughter. It seems like this girl really wants to find everyway to make it so we dont see our daughter vecause she wants to keep her for herself because she doesnt have a girl. She as two boys. Please any advice. Im going back to court december 1st

Keep working the plan DCF has given you. Let the social worker who is handling the DCF case know about the foster parent's refusal of visits.

We are working with DCF but because dcf were not the one who removed the kids from our home, DCF cannot and will not do anything about it. I know its our fault, everyone always tells us " you did this to yourselves". I understand this but this is the reason why i asked for help..it wasnt fair to my children. My kids didnt ask to be born. We took the responsibility to step up and actually go and get help..now i am doing the right thing and actually passinh dru tests..we are just waiting on our hair follicle tests to come in

You need an attorney for this - a message board isn't going to be very helpful to you.

Yes we are being appointed one, ive called them but they have been so busy they havnt gotten to ours yet. She did say before the courtdate we will have one. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get my kids back..i jave NEVER been away from my kids this long. I went from being with them all the time to only seeing them every week to two weeks. I just started seeing my youngest today.

Your access to your children is governed by the court order granting the 'guardianship' (or foster care placement). if the person with your child is not complying with the order, you can ask your lawyer to see if the case worker can resolve the problem or to bring a motion before the court to ask that the person be ordered to comply or face consequences such as the removal of the child from their home.

There is nothing is the temperary guardianship paperwork because at the beggining of everything we were all good, we communicated so well and now it gone to crap..once we get appointed our lawyer..im going to see what they can do, because what she is ding is not okay..thats only hurting my child in the end! I keep saying i WILL get my kids back december first, because i will fight tooth and nail..there should be no reason we cant get our kids back we will be 9 months clean. We will have completed our parenting class and we will be in early recovery and individual councwling and we will have completed anger management. What more could the judge ask for or even dcf!? And Mr. Knowitall i will deffinetly look into that..thank you

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Quoting scote266

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There is nothing is the temperary guardianship paperwork because at the beggining of everything we were all good, we communicated so well and now it gone to crap..once we get appointed our lawyer..im going to see what they can do, because what she is ding is not okay..thats only hurting my child in the end! I keep saying i WILL get my kids back december first, because i will fight tooth and nail..there should be no reason we cant get our kids back we will be 9 months clean. We will have completed our parenting class and we will be in early recovery and individual councwling and we will have completed anger management. What more could the judge ask for or even dcf!? And Mr. Knowitall i will deffinetly look into that..thank you

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Yes, the state can decide that you haven't completed the steps satisfactorily and make you jump through as many hoops as they think are necessary.

You need to understand something. On December 1st, you won't be the one deciding where the children are going to live - and to be perfectly blunt by your latest post it's clear that you're still having anger issues and those aren't going to disappear during the next 8 weeks.

If you signed over temporary guardianship on your own, how did the state get involved?

I keep saying i WILL get my kids back december first, because i will fight tooth and nail...

Dogmaique that was supposed to say they keep saying i will not get my kids back come december 1st. But i will fight tooth and nail to get them back.. (as in the guardians are saying this). I have auto correct and this phone isnt the best..nice and cheap..and the judge decided eho the kids go to i completly understand this..and only reason why i have to do anger management is becase dcf and the temp guardiana are trying to use my past against me..mind you when i was in dcf care i was 7 years old..so they are tryinh to use me being 7 against me. Some people say they cant but im not taking any chances..but we have done everythinh dcf has asked ys to do, but the only person thar is making it really hard is the girl who has my youngest daughter..i talled with dcf earlier and theu said that we are doing great and that we are doing everythinh properly and they are writing a letter for us to give to the judge..and dcf is just monitorinh the case right now...they cant make any decisions..also my husband is doing anger managment because we both said that whatever class him or i take the other person will take ot also eveb if they dont need it..its so the people who have our kids cant say anythinh or use anything against us..one of the girls who has one of our kids lied while under oath p the judge..and we have proof thar se lied..and its so sad that its all coming down to this, i have tried to talk with them and work things out wbut they have no interest. Also i know how people lool at us drug addicts..people look at us like we are pieces of poop..they judge us befre they know us..being an addict is not something i planned or asked for..i swore to myswlf i would never because of my mother and father..but i did stuff recreationally and then one day that was it..i know what i did wrong and i regret everything ive ever done, but i cant sit here and feel guilth because that wont make things better..i have toget up and keep pushing forward abd make my lifr better for myself and my kids..one day at a time..alot of things have been said about us especialy by the people who have our kids..but they also themselves are recovering addicts..

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Also i told a friend of mine that i wanted help and i needed help getting clean..hr was a mandated reporter so he had to call dcd..thats how they got involved..to me its a blessing in disguise because honestly if things didnt happen the way they did, i wouldnt be were i am today..

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Quoting Mercy&Grace

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If you signed over temporary guardianship on your own, how did the state get involved?

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What can sometimes happen in a situation like this is for CPS to propose that, instead of having the parents go through protective proceedings, they agree to allow a responsible relative to become guardian. That doesn't necessarily mean that protective proceedings won't follow, but if things work out they can become unnecessary.

When somebody is appointed guardian with the consent of the parents, absent compelling reasons not to do so, the court will order visitation. If the parents attempt to end the guardianship before they are able to provide a stable home, depending on the nature of the guardianship the court may deny the motion; if the court cannot, then the state can initiate protective proceedings and seek to formally remove the children from the parents' home.

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Quoting scote266

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I keep saying i WILL get my kids back december first, because i will fight tooth and nail...

Dogmaique that was supposed to say they keep saying i will not get my kids back come december 1st. But i will fight tooth and nail to get them back.. (as in the guardians are saying this). I have auto correct and this phone isnt the best..nice and cheap..and the judge decided eho the kids go to i completly understand this..and only reason why i have to do anger management is becase dcf and the temp guardiana are trying to use my past against me..mind you when i was in dcf care i was 7 years old..so they are tryinh to use me being 7 against me. Some people say they cant but im not taking any chances..but we have done everythinh dcf has asked ys to do, but the only person thar is making it really hard is the girl who has my youngest daughter..i talled with dcf earlier and theu said that we are doing great and that we are doing everythinh properly and they are writing a letter for us to give to the judge..and dcf is just monitorinh the case right now...they cant make any decisions..also my husband is doing anger managment because we both said that whatever class him or i take the other person will take ot also eveb if they dont need it..its so the people who have our kids cant say anythinh or use anything against us..one of the girls who has one of our kids lied while under oath p the judge..and we have proof thar se lied..and its so sad that its all coming down to this, i have tried to talk with them and work things out wbut they have no interest. Also i know how people lool at us drug addicts..people look at us like we are pieces of poop..they judge us befre they know us..being an addict is not something i planned or asked for..i swore to myswlf i would never because of my mother and father..but i did stuff recreationally and then one day that was it..i know what i did wrong and i regret everything ive ever done, but i cant sit here and feel guilth because that wont make things better..i have toget up and keep pushing forward abd make my lifr better for myself and my kids..one day at a time..alot of things have been said about us especialy by the people who have our kids..but they also themselves are recovering addicts..

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Also i told a friend of mine that i wanted help and i needed help getting clean..hr was a mandated reporter so he had to call dcd..thats how they got involved..to me its a blessing in disguise because honestly if things didnt happen the way they did, i wouldnt be were i am today..

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I think you have a very, very long road ahead of you.

My DCF worker said that they cant just remove the kids, they ave to go in front of the judge and show evidence on why the kids are not safe..she said she would have to call all my provisers if the providers pretty much have nothijg but good things to say then they will ave no evidence to remove the kids and if our providers expressed concern then they would step in..thats what they said to us..but we havde really good letters from all our providers right now so even if we did get the kids back they coukdnt remove them they said

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Dcf didnt allow us to give the kids to our friends..we did it before they were actaually involved . Because we knew it would be the best thing. These people promised they wouldnt do half the stuff they are doing now..they tried telling dcf we are getting high but we have proof we are not and we also are waiting on our hair follicle tests to come in

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Also, dcf is only keeping the case open because they just want to monior us and the kids to make sure we are doing he right thing, but because they didnt remove the kids, they cant tell the guardians what to do, they can give reccomondations..but they cant be like you hve to do this.

Oh believe me, just because you "voluntarily" handed off the kids doesn't mean that DCF lacks the ability to swoop in if they think those kids are going to be once more at risk.

I'm sorry hon, but in my opinion - based solely on what you've said here - you're not ready.

Okay hun, can you please tell my your opinion on why you think im not ready for me to take my kids back?

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I know they can swoop on and take them, but they told us that they wouldnt do that because we are not doing anything, we are doing everything on our service plan and our hair follicle came back and it was clean..we just got it back today, and dcf said they cant remove the kids the day we got them back, they would have to go in frony of a judge and he would have to say yes or no..but my dcf worker said that they would need evidence..this is what my dcf worker said..ao um going by everything they say..everything i tell you is something ive been told by the lawyer of the day pr dcf..and the people who have our kids..but dcf did say not to believe whatthey say unless its from dcf :)