30:4C-11.3 Exceptions to requirement to provide reasonable efforts to reunify child with parent.

25. In any case in which the Division of Child Protection and Permanency accepts a child in care or custody, including placement, the division shall not be required to provide reasonable efforts to reunify the child with a parent if a court of competent jurisdiction has determined that:

a. The parent has subjected the child to aggravated circumstances of abuse, neglect, cruelty, or abandonment;

b. The parent has been convicted of murder, aggravated manslaughter, or manslaughter of another child of the parent; aiding or abetting, attempting, conspiring, or soliciting to commit murder, aggravated manslaughter or manslaughter of the child or another child of the parent; committing or attempting to commit an assault that resulted, or could have resulted, in significant bodily injury to the child or another child of the parent; or committing a similarly serious criminal act which resulted, or could have resulted, in the death of or significant bodily injury to the child or another child of the parent; or

c. The rights of the parent to another of the parent's children have been involuntarily terminated.

When determining whether reasonable efforts are required to reunify the child with the parent, the health and safety of the child and the child's need for permanency shall be of paramount concern to the court.

This section shall not be construed to prohibit the division from providing reasonable efforts to reunify the family, if the division determines that family reunification is in the child's best interests.

A permanency plan for the child may be established at the same hearing at which the court determines that reasonable efforts are not required to reunify the child with the parent, if the hearing meets all of the requirements of a permanency hearing pursuant to section 50 of P.L.1999, c.53 (C.30:4C-61.2).

L.1999, c.53, s.25; amended 2004, c.130, s.51; 2012, c.16, s.63.