In re Hicks

Respondent-mother is a cognitively impaired young woman. When respondent’s family support system fell apart, she relinquished custody of her two-month-old daughter to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Subsequently, the DHHS took respondent’s newborn son into care. Although the child-protective proceedings persisted for more than three years and the DHHS was well aware of respondent’s special needs, the case service plan never included reasonable accommodations to provide respondent a meaningful opportunity to benefit. Absent such accommodations, the DHHS failed in its…