Adoption of Ilona

The Department of Children and Families (department) filed a petition under G. L. c. 119, § 24, alleging that Ilona was a child in need of care and protection.2 After five days of trial, a judge in the Juvenile Court found that Ilona’s mother and father were “currently unfit, unable and unavailable to further the welfare and best interest of [Ilona]” and that their unfitness was “likely to continue into the indefinite future to a near certitude.” The judge concluded that Ilona was a child in need of care and protection, and dispensed with the need for her parents’ consent to adoption,…