I wish they just "relinquished her." Instead they went to court and had her age changed to a legal adult. When they made her a legal adult, they deprived her of an education a child can get but an adult can't. She also lost the protections a child would have vs. adult. She ended up with a couple that appear to be decent people, but this couple has no legal rights to her as far as I can tell, because their legal guardianship petition was denied since N. is supposedly a legal adult. She also could have ended up with anyone at all. Any pedo could have said N. is a legal adult.
It's not just that they could have 'said' that, but that legally this 9 year old child was an adult in the eyes of the law, and any nasty male taking advantage of her age and naivety couldn't have been charged with molesting a child/pedophilia!
She could have driven a car or got married at 9 years old!
Even if she could attend college as an adult, that doesn't replace going to school with children her own age and having age-appropriate lessons.
If it wasn't for having physical disabilities, she would have been expected to go out and get a job!
Her legal protections were removed, and new legal obligations were given to her at an age when she wasn't capable of meeting them.