In re P.A., 241 N.C. App. 53 (2015)

G.S. 7B-906.1(n) requires the court to make written findings of fact of each for the five enumerated factors. Failure to do so is reversible error. In this case, the court would not be able to find G.S. 7B-906.1(n)(1), which requires the juvenile resided in the placement for at least one year.

In this case, the child was placed with Ms. Smith (the father’s girlfriend) and father via a nonsecure custody order and then subsequent dispositional orders from 9/20/2011 – 4/8/13. The father was arrested, and a new petition was filed with nonsecure custody ordered to Ms. Smith. The child continued to be placed with Ms. Smith (starting back to 9/20/2011) until 10/22/2013 when the court ordered a trial placement with the respondent mother. That trial placement failed, and the court ordered the child's placement back to Ms. Smith on 1/21/14. On 6/6/2014, the court ordered a permanent plan of guardianship with Ms. Smith and waived further permanency planning review hearings. Respondent mother appealed, and one issue was the waiver of permanency planning review hearings. The court held “It would have been impossible for the trial court to make a finding as to the first criterion [7B-906.1(n)(1)] that ‘the juvenile has resided in the placement for a period of at least one year’ since [the child] has been placed with Ms. Smith for only about 60 days at the time of the March 2014 hearing. Accordingly we hold the trial court committed reversible error in waiving further review hearings.”