MARYLAND (WBFF) — Children have the right to attend court proceedings that determine if they will be taken from their homes and perhaps placed in foster care, the Maryland Supreme Court has ruled.
“The Supreme Court is saying, you can’t make life-changing decisions about a child without their participation or without them being heard,” said Erica LeMon, a Maryland Legal Aid attorney who successfully argued the case before the state’s highest court. “It gives [children] agency, and it gives them power.”
The opinion, issued July 24 and written by Justice Angela M. Eaves, stems from the case of a now 14-year-old girl whom the Worcester County Department of Social Services wanted to remove from the home of her grandmother. A judge did not allow the girl, referred to only by the initials K.B., to attend a hearing challenging the removal.
While the case eventually became moot because the girl was ultimately allowed to remain with her grandmother, the state Supreme Court opted to weigh in because the issue “presents an issue of public importance” for other children in her situation.
Read the full story on the Baltimore Sun.
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