Alethea
Verified Attorney
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- Sep 21, 2016
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All good thoughts about her being with a relative but there are completely legal ways to do this if it's necessary! Relatives can get kinship guardianship over minor relatives. Parents can voluntarily relinquish their parental rights either to a relative or an adoptive family. In foster care and adoption, there can be formal mediation with a mediator where the parent relinquishes their rights and in exchange the adoptive family agrees to provide them pictures every year, letters, a certain amount of contact.
The trend is to really help parents place their children in safe and loving homes when they can't parent themselves. These issues are always sensitive but I think it's important when we see these very sad cases come up that parents know there are options for them, even when their children are older. There are plenty of families approved to adopt older children. Taking these steps before someone gets hurt is so important.
ETA: All of this to say, if she were with a relative, her parents wouldn't need to hide it from the police. They could simply say she's now living with her aunt while we figure out what's in her best interest. LE would contact Madalina and her aunt to confirm and that's it. So unfortunately I think we have something a lot worse here.
The trend is to really help parents place their children in safe and loving homes when they can't parent themselves. These issues are always sensitive but I think it's important when we see these very sad cases come up that parents know there are options for them, even when their children are older. There are plenty of families approved to adopt older children. Taking these steps before someone gets hurt is so important.
ETA: All of this to say, if she were with a relative, her parents wouldn't need to hide it from the police. They could simply say she's now living with her aunt while we figure out what's in her best interest. LE would contact Madalina and her aunt to confirm and that's it. So unfortunately I think we have something a lot worse here.
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