In re A'vion A.

Syllabus

The respondent mother appealed to this court from the judgments of the trial court terminating her parental rights with respect to her minor children, A, L, and Z. She claimed that the trial court improperly denied her motion to compel the Department of Children and Families to pro- vide additional reunification services to her, improperly concluded that she had failed to achieve the requisite degree of personal rehabilitation required by statute (§ 17a-112 (j) (3) (B)) with respect to Z, and errone- ously determined that the department made reasonable efforts at reunifi- cation pursuant to § 17a-112 (j) (1), which requires a trial court to find by clear and convincing evidence that the department made reasonable efforts to reunify a parent and children unless it finds, instead, that the parent is unable or unwilling to benefit from such efforts. The trial court found, pursuant to § 17a-112 (j) (1), that the mother also was unwilling or unable to benefit from reunification efforts. Held: 1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the respondent mother's motion to compel the department to provide additional reunifi- cation services: it was within the court's discretion to make decisions relating to its case management authority and it was not improper for the court to have predicated its decision on the fact that the termination trial had been postponed months earlier and was scheduled to begin in eighteen days, more than two years after the children had been trans- ferred to the custody of the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families; moreover, because the adequacy of the department's efforts at reunification would have been an issue at the termination trial, the mother would have had the opportunity to present argument and evi- dence at that trial refuting the petitioner's claims that she was provided with appropriate reunification services or that she was unwilling or unable to benefit from them. 2. The respondent mother could not prev