ImASunflower
Junior Member
Oregon is the state we are in.
Recently as of a couple days ago, my aunt was arrested for a drug deal gone sour and is looking at 7 years behind bars. She has 6 kids that are no longer hers but the states. My aunt and mother want to take custody of the children, ranging from infant to 14 years old. Ideal plan was the 3 youngest with my mom and older 3 with my aunt. The fathers in question are either currently in Jail or in a Mexico (not a US citizen/resident), so they aren't in the picture. The kids were with my mom and aunt respectively, but DHS took them away into foster care. And this is where we run into the problem. The caseworker assigned to the kids, had reason to believe both my aunt and mom were also druggies. This was just assumption of the caseworker, without any sort of drug testing, or even asking them about it/visiting them. So the kids were taken away without cause, from my mom and aunt. What they want to know is how do they fight this, as they were initially in talks to receive custody of the children, but there were a few snags. My aunt was denied custody at first cause she is married to someone who isn't a citizen/resident but both have full time jobs and are working on getting my aunts husband papers. My mom was in talks but wasn't formally given custody as she doesn't have a full time job. She mainly does "under the table gigs" or seasonal work. However, my brother who lives with my mom does have a full time job, so they were in talks of giving him custody. What are the next steps to take in all this, or fight the "druggie" allegations. As things were progressing smoothly up until this point.
Also I don't know if this is applicable information but I figure more information can't hurt: my mom was already taking care of the youngest of the children, and while occasionally caring for the other 2 younger ones, and my aunt looking after the older 3(Taking them to/from school giving lunch money etc.) So taking care of them isn't something that'll be new to them as they already have been doing. They were trying to have my aunt(the one who was jailed) give them custody as they foresaw her drug problems and wanted to avoid getting the state involved.
This is all the information my mother has given me as she doesn't know anything else. Any help/info on how to proceed next would be great!
Recently as of a couple days ago, my aunt was arrested for a drug deal gone sour and is looking at 7 years behind bars. She has 6 kids that are no longer hers but the states. My aunt and mother want to take custody of the children, ranging from infant to 14 years old. Ideal plan was the 3 youngest with my mom and older 3 with my aunt. The fathers in question are either currently in Jail or in a Mexico (not a US citizen/resident), so they aren't in the picture. The kids were with my mom and aunt respectively, but DHS took them away into foster care. And this is where we run into the problem. The caseworker assigned to the kids, had reason to believe both my aunt and mom were also druggies. This was just assumption of the caseworker, without any sort of drug testing, or even asking them about it/visiting them. So the kids were taken away without cause, from my mom and aunt. What they want to know is how do they fight this, as they were initially in talks to receive custody of the children, but there were a few snags. My aunt was denied custody at first cause she is married to someone who isn't a citizen/resident but both have full time jobs and are working on getting my aunts husband papers. My mom was in talks but wasn't formally given custody as she doesn't have a full time job. She mainly does "under the table gigs" or seasonal work. However, my brother who lives with my mom does have a full time job, so they were in talks of giving him custody. What are the next steps to take in all this, or fight the "druggie" allegations. As things were progressing smoothly up until this point.
Also I don't know if this is applicable information but I figure more information can't hurt: my mom was already taking care of the youngest of the children, and while occasionally caring for the other 2 younger ones, and my aunt looking after the older 3(Taking them to/from school giving lunch money etc.) So taking care of them isn't something that'll be new to them as they already have been doing. They were trying to have my aunt(the one who was jailed) give them custody as they foresaw her drug problems and wanted to avoid getting the state involved.
This is all the information my mother has given me as she doesn't know anything else. Any help/info on how to proceed next would be great!