In re Brian P.

Syllabus

The respondent parents appealed from the judgment of the trial court termi- nating their parental rights with respect to their minor child, B. They claimed that the trial court improperly concluded that they had failed to achieve a sufficient degree of personal rehabilitation as required by the applicable statute (§ 17a-112). They further claimed that the court failed to determine the needs of B before deciding whether they had failed to rehabilitate, and improperly found that termination of their parental rights was in the best interest of B. Held: 1. The trial court properly found that the respondent parents had failed to achieve sufficient personal rehabilitation so as to encourage the belief that they could assume a responsible position in the life of B within a reasonable time: although the parents claimed that the court erred in terminating their parental rights solely on the basis of their drug use and addiction, even though their drug use never caused them to provide inadequate care for B and they had stopped using drugs, the court based its finding that the parents failed to rehabilitate on multiple factors, which this court could not conclude were clearly erroneous, including the parents' drug related arrests, their limited engagement in counseling and treatment, their lack of financial and housing independence, that their progress in addressing their addiction was outweighed by their prior pattern of drug use and other instances of bad parental judgment, and its determination that the parents were not fully credible because their testimony conflicted with testimony presented by the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families; furthermore, even though the parents claimed that drug use was an insufficient basis to terminate parental rights, B was adjudicated neglected after the parents filed pleas of nolo contendere to allegations that B was permitted to live under conditions injurious to well-being, leaving the court at the adjudicatory phase onl