New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services v. E.P.

In this case, the Appellate Division affirmed the Family Part’s termination of a mother’s parental rights to her daughter, who is now almost thirteen years old. The termination was based in large part on the mother’s addiction to drugs, psychological problems, and unstable lifestyle, all of which made her unfit to care for her child for most of the child’s life. Her emotionally fragile and unstable daughter moved from one foster home to another, and suffered abuse on more than one occasion. There is no prospect of the daughter’s adoption on the horizon.

Although mother and daughter have not…