Adoption of Donald

The principal issue presented by this case is whether the ten-day appeal period of G. L. c. 119, § 27, or the sixty-day appeal period of Mass.R.A.P. 4(a), as amended, 395 Mass. 1110 (1985), governs an appeal from a decision of the District Court adjudicating children in need of care and protection, awarding their permanent custody to the Department of *858Social Services (department), and dispensing with the parents’ consent to adoption. A judge of the District Court ruled that the ten-day period of G. L. c. 119, § 27, governs and dismissed the mother’s appeal as untimely. We reverse.

We summarize…