Question about Foster Care for children

[jokerswild]

What is the name of your state? NV/OH

Ok, kind of a long story, but I am interested to find out the legal side on this. Didn't know if I should put this in Adoption, or in Custody area, but I decided here.

My father-in-law 24 years ago divorced his ex-wife (they had a 6 week old baby Rachael). Now terms of the divorce were that he was to have visitation, and was to know exactly where she was at all times so that he could send both support and have the opportunity to visit his daughter. She had told him that she was moving to Ohio, and he began to send support checks to his ex-wife's mother and fathers house, but when he called to try and set up visitation she was "not there" and hadn't been seen (yet his checks were being cashed on a regular basis). Several years later Rachael's mother applied for assistance and the state of OH started coming after my father-in-law for back child support, his thing was he wanted to know where she was****************************as really Rachael had been kidnapped. Told the state that if they won't tell him where his daughter is he wasn't going to pay and for that matter they were part of the kidnapping and went on. His tax money started being taken away for child support and such as would be expected in a normal situation of a "deadbeat dad", but he was far from that. All he EVER wanted was to be a part of his daughters life. This was the focus of 80% of his conversations even before the state of Ohio got in contact with him.

Anyway now we skip ahead to modern day. 24 years later he and his daughter find each other via myspace and begin talking. (I have never seen the man so happy) He finds out that when she was 8 years old she was put into foster care and he was never contacted about this. He would have been more than happy to come and get her and take her in. On a moral level I know that this is wrong, but what of a legal level? I am curious as to what anyone knows on this subject.

[Zigner]

There is nothing to be done (legally) 24 years later...

[jokerswild]

done to her mother or to the state? I mean he had no notice that she was going into foster care. They did not even try and contact him.

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by jokerswild

done to her mother or to the state? I mean he had no notice that she was going into foster care. They did not even try and contact him.

There is nothing to be done (legally) 24 years later...
After re-reading, I see that we're actually talking about 16 years since the date of entry to foster care, but the answer doesn't change.