I want to terminate my parental rights. How do I do so?

Being a parent is one of the most important aspects of life that one experiences.  However, some parents are not able to adequately care for their child.  In certain instances, this may necessitate the termination of the parent’s right to custody of the child.  Prior to terminating parental rights, the court must find grounds for the termination.  At which time, the court will then consider what is in the manifest best interest of the child when ruling.

Grounds for terminating parental rights may be established under the following circumstances:

1. the parent or parents have voluntarily executed a written surrender of the child and consented to the entry of an order giving custody of the child to the Department of Children and Families for subsequent adoption and the Department is willing to accept custody of the child;
2. abandonment or when the identity or location of the parent or parents is unknown and cannot be ascertained by diligent search within 60 days;
3. the parent or parents engaged in conduct toward the child or toward other children that demonstrates that the continuing involvement of the parent or parents in the parent-child relationship threatens the life, safety, well-being, or physical, mental, or emotional health of the child irrespective of the provision of services;
4. the parent of a child is incarcerated in a state or federal correctional institution either for a period of time expected to constitute a substantial portion of the time before the child will attain the age of 18 years or for certain specified crimes and the court determines by clear and convincing evidence that continuing the parental relationship would be harmful to the child;
5. the child has been adjudicated dependent, a case plan has been filed with the court, and the child continues to be abused, neglected, or abandoned by the parent or parents, and the parent or parents have materially breached the case plan;
6. the parent or parents engaged in egregious conduct or had the opportunity and capability to prevent and knowingly failed to prevent egregious conduct that threatens the life, safety, or physical, mental, or emotional health of the child or the child’s sibling;
7. the parent or parents have subjected the child or another child to aggravated child abuse, sexual battery or sexual abuse, or chronic abuse;
8. the parent or parents have committed the murder, manslaughter, aiding or abetting the murder, or conspiracy or solicitation to murder the other parent or another child, or a felony battery that resulted in serious bodily injury to the child or to another child;
9. the parental rights of the parent to a sibling of the child have been terminated involuntarily;
10. the parent or parents have a history of extensive, abusive, and chronic use of alcohol or a controlled substance which renders them incapable of caring for the child, and have refused or failed to complete available treatment for such use during the three-year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition for termination of parental rights;
11. a test administered at birth that indicated that the child’s blood, urine, or meconium contained any amount of alcohol or a controlled substance or metabolites of such substances, the presence of which was not the result of medical treatment administered to the mother or the newborn infant, and the biological mother of the child is the biological mother of at least one other child who was adjudicated dependent after a finding of harm to the child’s health or welfare due to exposure to a controlled substance or alcohol, after which the biological mother had the opportunity to participate in substance abuse treatment;
12. on three or more occasions the child or another child of the parent or parents has been placed in out-of-home care, and the conditions that led to the child’s out-of-home placement were caused by the parent or parents;
13. the court determines by clear and convincing evidence that the child was conceived as a result of an act of sexual battery; and
14. the parent is convicted of an offense that requires the parent to register as a sexual predator.