TITLE 15 COURTS

Section 11. Juvenile Code, 15-11-1 through 15-11-747.

ARTICLE 4 TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS

15-11-310. Grounds for determining termination of parental rights.

1. In considering the termination of parental rights, the court shall first determine whether one of the following statutory grounds for termination of parental rights has been met:
   1. The parent has given written consent to termination which has been acknowledged by the court or has voluntarily surrendered his or her child for adoption;
   2. The parent has subjected his or her child to aggravated circumstances;
   3. The parent has wantonly and willfully failed to comply for a period of 12 months or longer with a decree to support his or her child that has been entered by a court of competent jurisdiction of this or any other state;
   4. A child is abandoned by his or her parent; or
   5. A child is a dependent child due to lack of proper parental care or control by his or her parent, reasonable efforts to remedy the circumstances have been unsuccessful or were not required, such cause of dependency is likely to continue or will not likely be remedied in the reasonably foreseeable future, and:
      1. Returning such child to his or her parent is likely to cause serious physical, mental, moral, or emotional harm to such child or threaten the physical safety or well-being of such child; or
      2. Continuation of the parent and child relationship will cause or is likely to cause serious physical, mental, moral, or emotional harm to such child.
2. If any of the statutory grounds for termination has been met, the court shall then consider whether termination is in a child's best interests after considering the following factors:
   1. Such child's sense of attachments, including his or her sense of security and familiarity, and the continuity of affection for such child;
   2. Such child's wishes and long-term goals;
   3. Such child's need for permanence, including his or her need for stability and continuity of relationships with a parent, siblings, and other relatives;
   4. Any benefit to such child of being integrated into a stable and permanent home and the likely effect of delaying such integration into such stable and permanent home environment;
   5. The detrimental impact of the lack of a stable and permanent home environment on such child's safety, well-being, or physical, mental, or emotional health;
   6. Such child's future physical, mental, moral, or emotional well-being; and
   7. Any other factors, including the factors set forth in Code Section 15-11-26, considered by the court to be relevant and proper to its determination.
3. If the court determines that a parent has subjected his or her child to aggravated circumstances because such parent has committed the murder of the other parent of such child, the court shall presume that termination of parental rights is in the best interests of the child.

(Code 1981, §15-11-310, enacted by Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 1-1/HB 242; Ga. L. 2018, p. 935, § 3/SB 131.)

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, substituted the present provisions of paragraph (a)(5) for the former provisions, which read: "A child is a dependent child due to lack of proper parental care or control by his or her parent, reasonable efforts to remedy the circumstances have been unsuccessful or were not required, such cause of dependency is likely to continue or will not likely be remedied, and the continued dependency will cause or is likely to cause serious physical, mental, emotional, or moral harm to such child."; deleted "and" at the end of paragraph (b)(3); added paragraphs (b)(4) through (b)(6); and redesignated former paragraph (b)(4) as present paragraph (b)(7).