Description: Owatonna, Minnesota, a family law lawyer, represented the parents in a parental termination action.

On the day before Halloween in 2023, a gas-station and convenience-store employee in Steele County reported to law enforcement that two young children-eight and six years old-had come into the store twice that morning without warm clothes or a caregiver. Responding officers returned the children to their home, where they learned that appellant mother, J.I.G., had been asleep all morning with her youngest child, who was two years old, and did not know where her other three children were. It was discovered that her four-year-old child had found his way onto the bus and gotten himself to school. After the officers' visit to the home, the children were placed in emergency protective care.

* * *

Key Phrases Termination of parental rights. Reasonable efforts for reunification. Children's best interests. Substance use concerns. Parental neglect and abuse.

Outcome:

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: