Christopher D. v. Superior Court

In Christopher D. v. Superior Court (2012) 210 Cal.App.4th 60, the father was incarcerated from September 2011 (the date of the jurisdiction/disposition report) until December 2011, during which time he received no visits. From December 2011 until March 2012, he was in a residential drug treatment program, during which time he received two visits; the social worker's heavy caseload and transportation problems made additional visits "very difficult." After leaving the residential treatment program two days early, the father secured one visit. Within a week, the father was arrested on new drug charges and incarcerated again. At the first six-month status review hearing, the juvenile court terminated the father's reunification services and set the matter for a section 366.26 hearing. On appeal, the father challenged the reasonable services finding. The appellate court concluded the finding that reasonable visitation services were provided during the three months the father was in the residential treatment program was not supported by substantial evidence, but rejected the father's challenge to the lack of visits while he was incarcerated. It reasoned the child's extreme anxiety warranted deferring visits until the father was no longer incarcerated, but found efforts to provide visits while the father was in the residential treatment program "were totally inadequate." (Id. at p. 74.) The social worker's excuse of being too busy and the rehabilitation center too far away "simply do not provide substantial evidence that the Agency exercised a good faith effort to provide the visitation ordered by the court." (Ibid.) The court noted that three months without visits was not "a short period of time" relevant to the short six-month reunification period. (Ibid.)