In re Zayden J.

Syllabus

The respondent mother appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court terminating her parental rights with respect to her minor child, Z. The mother had an IQ of 64 and had received assistance from state agencies, including, but not limited to, daily living services and financial support, for the majority of her life. She had a history with the Department of Children and Families dating back to 2015 because of her ongoing mental health issues. On the day Z was born, a hospital social worker reported concerns regarding the mother's mental health to the department, including that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and psychosis, and that, throughout the moth- er's pregnancy, she had been seen at various hospitals for treatment or intervention due to her unstable mental health and suicidal ideations. After Z had been adjudicated neglected, the court ordered specific steps to facilitate the return of Z to the mother and vested the care and custody of Z in the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families. The petitioner thereafter filed a petition for termination of the mother's parental rights with respect to Z. Three days prior to the start of trial on the petition, the mother filed a motion for a sixty day continuance, stating that a putative father for Z had been identified and that he was scheduled to take a DNA test. The court denied the mother's motion for a continuance and moved forward with the trial. In its memorandum of decision terminating the parental rights of the mother as to Z, the court found by clear and convincing evidence that the department had made reasonable efforts to reunify the mother with Z and that the mother was unwilling or unable to progress toward reunification. The court found that, although the department had offered the mother mental health and medication management services, offered her in-home ser- vices to assi