State ex rel. Juvenile Department v. Williams

Father appeals from a judgment entered by the juvenile court after a permanency hearing involving his six-year-old child. In the judgment, the trial court found that the Department of Human Services (DHS) had made reasonable efforts to safely return child home and ordered DHS to proceed with the plan of achieving adoption, and father now assigns error to that finding. On de novo review, ORS 419A.200(6)(b), we conclude that DHS did not make reasonable efforts and therefore reverse.

We begin by summarizing the events leading up to the permanency hearing. Our focus is solely on the events…