guardianship in CA to non relative

Info for giving temp. guardianship to someone else..

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SnowBall
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Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 2:57 pm

guardianship in CA to non relative

Postby SnowBall » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:55 pm

Is it possible in CA for a single parent of a child, who's other parent has abandoned them, to assign guardianship to a friend? The reason for this would be to prevent the removal of a child to a relatives home. The child had been place with relatives in the past, which led to few visits, due to the relative providing very little transportation and not allowing the parent to visit their home. The child and parent were reunified. But if for whatever reason, there is another CPS case, the parent would prefer that the child not go back with the relative, because of their past lack of providing transportation or allowing visits in home.

I know that it is possible for a child to stay with a non relative close friend. But relatives have priority. Would Guardianship by a non relative give priority over a relative? If the child was already living with the family friend and parent, would that make any difference, because then the child wouldn't need to leave he home?

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family_man
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Re: guardianship in CA to non relative

Postby family_man » Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:41 am

I think it might make a difference because the CPS staff might not see a need to place your child somewhere else while the investigation is taking place. Of course it's no guarantee, since CPS could still ask the judge to do whatever CPS wants done, and the judge might agree.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

SnowBall
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 2:57 pm

Re: guardianship in CA to non relative

Postby SnowBall » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:50 pm

family_man wrote:I think it might make a difference because the CPS staff might not see a need to place your child somewhere else while the investigation is taking place. Of course it's no guarantee, since CPS could still ask the judge to do whatever CPS wants done, and the judge might agree.



After posting the question, I found out that CA (and other states) allow for a parent to choose a stand by guardian or a joint guardian. http://guardianships.uslegal.com/state- ... rdian-law/

Are you saying that the judge could revoke the guardianship? Does there need to be cause for this?

Also, the child is supposed to be placed in the least restrictive environment. I was told this by a lawyer. Hopefully, since the relative already has an established track record of doing very little to provide transportation and didn't allow in home visits, that would be taken into consideration. The relative can't say that they would help with transportation and allow home visits, when they hadn't much in the past or at least I don't see how that would be believable. Also, there were complaints by the relative because the parent was calling too much to ask about how the child was. All of this is documented.

I'm just trying to help avoid a situation where the child would be unnecessarily traumatized by having to move out of their home and not being able to have many visitations due to lack of cooperation by the relative foster parent.

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family_man
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Re: guardianship in CA to non relative

Postby family_man » Sat Apr 04, 2015 7:11 pm

If CPS opens an investigation into your family and discovers the guardianship agreement, they will naturally investigate the guardian, to ensure that the child is "safe" there. If CPS finds something they don't like with the guardian, they could ask a judge to assign temporary custody to CPS, thereby revoking the guardianship.

Most foster parents are not relatives. Relatives who step in to care for a child are called "kinship placements," and have different (more lax) rules to follow. Usually they are not paid by the state.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.


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