In re T.K.M.

Citations

• 2019 Ohio 5076

Syllabus

CHILDREN – CUSTODY – DEPENDENT AND ABUSED –INTERSTATE COMPACT FOR THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN: No finding that father was unsuitable was necessary before granting legal custody of the child to the child's step-aunt because the adjudication that the child was abused and dependent implicitly involved a determination of the unsuitability of the child's custodial and/or noncustodial parents. Father never objected to or appealed the juvenile court's determination that the child was dependent and abused and did not file his own motion for custody until the child was removed from the paternal grandmother's home and placed with mother's stepsister at that time it was too late to challenge the adjudication of dependency and abuse, and the only determination for the juvenile court to make was what disposition was in the child's best interest. The juvenile court's determination that the child should be placed with her step-aunt was not an abuse of discretion when competent, credible evidence showed that the child was thriving in step-aunt's home, mother could visit the child, mother established a positive relationship with the child, and father had had only intermittent contact with the child. The child could not be placed with the father under the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (\ICPC\) where the receiving state did not approve placement of the child with father, there was no right to judicial review in Ohio, and father failed to appeal the denial in the receiving state.