Relinquishing parental rights
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
I would love some advice on relinquishing my parental rights for my son to a home/care facility. How and where should I start the process?
I must first say that your question is somewhat incomplete, because you did not refer in it to the fact that apart from your rights, you also have legal obligations to meet for your child’s development until the child reaches age 23, by, for one, providing maintenance contributions until that age. The law requires both parents to contribute to their child’s maintenance until age 23, and both have equal rights to have legal custody of their child, and the one who is most capable of looking after the child’s needs on a day-to-day basis would be ordered to, in addition to generally joint legal custody, have the care and control of the child.
So, as I have said, you will have to deal with your obligations, one of which is to respect the rights and obligations of your child’s other parent. You have not even alluded to the other parent. If this person is alive, he or she must be part of the seemingly draconian plan which you have. Have you contacted the other parent? Or is it one of those circumstances that the other parent had abandoned you and the child and disappeared? Or that he or she had sadly died?
Anyway, let me deal directly with your question. I would advise you to go first to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA). It has the responsibility to protect children in need of care and protection and to ensure that they have a secure and stable living environment. Your child clearly is such a child because, for whatever reason(s), you have concluded that you can no longer do this for your child. The main office is at 40 Duke Street, Kingston, but if you are elsewhere in Jamaica, you can look up the address for the agency office in your parish.
The governing law for the care and protection of all children in Jamaica is the Child Care and Protection Act, and it also deals with the duties and obligations of all parents and of the agency itself. You should go there and explain yours and your child’s situation and let them advise and tell you what they can do or not do.
Or, as many parents have done before you, you can go directly to the Family Court which serves your parish and speak with the intake clerk in the court’s office, who would assist you so that your application to the court would be prepared at no monetary cost to you. When your matter gets before a judge for hearing, you must of course be present with your child, and the judge will listen to you and question you to have all the facts clearly stated. An officer from the CPFSA would, in fact, be present in court and the judge may refer the matter for them to investigate the child’s circumstance in greater detail, or whether some alternative assistance can be provided for you and your child and the situations in homes and/or care facilities before a final order is made, which must be in the best interests of the child.
I know that the conclusion you have arrived at for your child is not an easy one for you to make. In fact, because of your experiences with your child, you may need to have some counselling or therapy for trauma or stress. You should consider this seriously, as the CPFSA or the Family Court can provide this for you and certainly for your child and any other medical needs your child may have.
Do think some more and consider the situation from your child’s point of view, and if you arrive at the same conclusion that your child would be better off in a state facility, then either go to the Family Court or to the CPFSA and get assistance in either of them to find the appropriate place for your child.
I wish you and your child the very best and hope that you resolve the issue of your child’s future home, upbringing, and development as would be in the child’s best interests.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
