Termination of Parental Rights in North Carolina
Termination permanently ends the legal relationship between a parent and a child. Here is who can ask for it, the grounds the law recognizes, how the two-stage hearing works, and what to do if you are the parent being asked to give up your rights.
What Termination Means
An order terminating parental rights severs every legal tie between the parent and the child. The parent has no right to custody or visitation, no right to make decisions, no right to notice of future proceedings, and no duty to pay support going forward. The child is then free to be adopted without that parent’s consent. Termination is governed by Article 11 of Chapter 7B of the General Statutes, G.S. 7B-1100 through 7B-1114, and it is handled in district court as a juvenile matter, which means the files are confidential and the hearings are closed.
Termination cases come in two kinds. In the first, the county department of social services has removed the child for abuse, neglect, or dependency, reunification has failed, and DSS petitions to terminate so the child can be adopted, usually by the foster family. In the second, a private party petitions: most often a custodial parent whose new spouse wants to adopt the child, and the absent parent either will not consent or cannot be found. The law is the same for both, but the cases feel very different, and this page addresses each.
Who Can Ask the Court to Terminate
G.S. 7B-1103 lists the people and agencies with standing to file a petition or motion to terminate. They are:
- Either parent, seeking to terminate the rights of the other parent. A parent cannot terminate their own rights by petition; that is done through relinquishment or consent to adoption under Chapter 48.
- A guardian of the child appointed by a court.
- A county department of social services or a licensed child-placing agency that has custody of the child under a court order, or to which a parent has surrendered the child.
- Any person with whom the child has lived continuously for the two years immediately before the petition was filed.
- The child’s guardian ad litem appointed in an abuse, neglect, or dependency case.
- Any person who has filed a petition to adopt the child.
A grandparent, a stepparent who has not yet filed for adoption, or a relative who has cared for the child for less than two years does not have standing on their own. In practice a stepparent adoption and the termination petition are filed together, and the adoption petition supplies the standing.
The child must have lived in North Carolina long enough for a North Carolina court to have jurisdiction under the UCCJEA, and the respondent parent must be served with the petition and a summons. A parent who cannot be found after a diligent search may be served by publication, and the court must appoint a guardian ad litem for a parent who is incompetent.
Grounds for Termination Under G.S. 7B-1111
The court cannot terminate parental rights because the child would be better off, because the other parent has remarried, or because the parent is a poor one. It must find at least one of the specific grounds listed in G.S. 7B-1111(a), and the petitioner must prove that ground by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence, a standard higher than the usual civil burden. The grounds that matter in most cases are these.
Willful abandonment
The parent has willfully abandoned the child for at least six consecutive months immediately before the petition was filed. Abandonment means more than absence; it is conduct showing a settled purpose to give up all parental claims, such as no visits, no calls, no cards, no support, and no effort to maintain the relationship, when the parent was able to do those things. This is the ground most often used in private petitions. A parent whose contact was prevented by the other parent, or who was incarcerated and made what efforts incarceration allowed, has a defense.
Failure to pay support
Where the child is in the custody of the other parent, a guardian, or a custodian under a court order or agreement, and the parent has for one year or more willfully failed without justification to pay the support required by the order or agreement. Where the child is in DSS or agency custody, the ground is a willful failure for six months to pay a reasonable portion of the cost of care when physically and financially able. A parent who paid nothing because nothing was ever ordered has a defense under the first version; the second does not require an order.
Abuse or neglect
The parent has abused or neglected the child as those terms are defined in G.S. 7B-101. In cases where the child has been out of the home for a long time, the court looks at past neglect and the likelihood that neglect would recur if the child were returned, which turns on what the parent has done since removal to address the problems that caused it.
Failure to make progress in foster care
The parent has willfully left the child in foster care or in a placement outside the home for more than twelve months without making reasonable progress under the circumstances to correct the conditions that led to removal. This is the most common ground in DSS cases. The parent’s efforts, not just results, are weighed, but a parent who has not engaged with the case plan after a year is in serious danger.
Father of a child born outside marriage
The father has not, before the petition was filed, established paternity by judicial order or affidavit, legitimated the child, married the mother, or provided substantial financial support or consistent care to the child and mother. A father who wants to protect his rights should establish paternity and support the child, because this ground exists to clear the way for adoption when a father has done neither.
Incapacity to provide care
The parent is incapable of providing proper care and supervision such that the child is dependent, because of substance abuse, mental illness, intellectual disability, or a similar condition, and there is a reasonable probability the incapacity will continue for the foreseeable future. The parent must also lack an appropriate alternative child care arrangement.
The remaining grounds cover a parent who has committed murder or voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent, or a felony assault resulting in serious bodily injury to the child or another child; a parent whose rights to another child were involuntarily terminated and who lacks the ability or willingness to establish a safe home; a parent who voluntarily abandoned an infant under the safe surrender law for at least sixty days; and a parent who was convicted of a sexual offense that resulted in the child’s conception. These are rarely contested on the facts.
How a Termination Case Moves Through Court
A termination case starts with a petition, or with a motion in a pending abuse, neglect, or dependency case. The respondent parent is served and has thirty days to file an answer or response. If the parent is indigent, the court appoints counsel at the first appearance, and a guardian ad litem is appointed for the child in most cases. The court holds a pretrial hearing to narrow the issues and is required to hold the termination hearing within ninety days of the filing, though continuances are common. Either side may subpoena witnesses and records, and the rules of evidence apply.
Stage one: adjudication
At adjudication the only question is whether the petitioner has proved a ground. The judge, not a jury, hears the evidence and must make written findings of fact supported by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence. If no ground is proved, the petition is dismissed and the case ends. If one is proved, the court moves to the second stage, sometimes the same day.
Stage two: disposition and best interests
Proving a ground does not require termination. At disposition the court decides whether terminating is in the child’s best interest, considering the factors in G.S. 7B-1110(a): the child’s age, the likelihood of adoption, whether termination will help achieve the permanent plan, the bond between the child and the parent, the quality of the relationship between the child and any proposed adoptive parent or other permanent placement, and anything else relevant. A parent who has lost at adjudication can still win at disposition by showing a real bond with the child and no adoptive placement waiting, and courts do decline to terminate on that basis.
The order and the appeal
The court must enter a written order within thirty days of the hearing. A parent whose rights are terminated has thirty days to give notice of appeal, and the appeal goes to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which reviews whether the findings support the grounds and whether the court abused its discretion at disposition. Appeals in termination cases are expedited, but they still take months, and the child’s adoption cannot be finalized while an appeal is pending.
Termination in Stepparent and Relative Adoptions
The termination cases we handle most are private ones: a parent with custody has remarried, the new spouse wants to adopt, and the child’s other parent has been absent for years. Adoption under Chapter 48 requires the consent of both legal parents unless the court finds that a parent’s consent is not required, and the cleanest way to get there is a termination order. The two petitions are usually filed together, the termination is heard first, and the adoption follows once the termination order is final.
The grounds in these cases are almost always abandonment or failure to support, and the evidence is the absence itself: no visits, no calls, no gifts, no support, documented month by month. The custodial parent should keep that record from the start, including attempts the absent parent made and the custodial parent’s responses, because the absent parent’s usual defense is that contact was refused or that they did not know where the child was. A parent who is paying support, even irregularly, or who has made real efforts to see the child, is hard to terminate, and a judge will not terminate simply because the stepparent is the better parent.
Sometimes the absent parent will consent. A parent can consent to the stepparent adoption directly under Chapter 48, which accomplishes the same result without a termination hearing and is faster and far less painful for everyone. Before filing a contested termination, it is worth asking. See our pages on stepparent adoption and adoption in North Carolina.
Termination After a DSS Removal
When DSS removes a child and the juvenile court adjudicates the child abused, neglected, or dependent, the parent is given a case plan: substance abuse treatment, parenting classes, stable housing, a mental health assessment, visitation, whatever the removal was about. The court reviews progress every few months. If the child has been in care for twelve of the most recent twenty-two months, DSS is generally required to file for termination unless an exception applies, and once the court changes the permanent plan from reunification to adoption, a petition usually follows within sixty days.
The parent’s best defense is the case plan. Courts terminate parents who did not engage; they are reluctant to terminate parents who did the work, even imperfectly, and who have a bond with the child. Every missed visit, every positive drug screen, and every unreturned call from the social worker is documented and becomes evidence at adjudication. A parent in a DSS case should treat the plan as the trial, because it is. Relatives who want the child should come forward early, because a relative placement can change the permanent plan and take termination off the table. See DSS, CPS, and your children.
What Termination Changes, and What It Does Not
Support and arrears
The duty to pay future child support ends with the order. Arrears that accrued before termination are not erased; they remain a judgment the custodial parent or the state can collect. A parent cannot volunteer for termination to escape support, and courts will not terminate on a parent’s own motion for that purpose.
Inheritance
The terminated parent loses all rights to inherit from the child. The child’s right to inherit from the terminated parent continues until a final order of adoption is entered, at which point the child inherits from the adoptive parents instead.
Grandparents and relatives
Termination ends the legal relationship with the parent’s family as well, so the terminated parent’s parents have no right to visitation. The exception is G.S. 50-13.2A, which allows a biological grandparent who had a substantial relationship with the child to seek visitation after a stepparent or relative adoption.
Reinstatement
Under G.S. 7B-1114, a child who is at least twelve, or younger in extraordinary circumstances, who has not been adopted and has no permanent plan in place may ask the court to reinstate a terminated parent’s rights, and the parent, DSS, or the guardian ad litem may join. It is rare and requires a showing that reinstatement is in the child’s best interest. It is not available once an adoption is final.
Defending Against a Termination Petition
A parent served with a termination petition should do three things immediately: file a response within thirty days, ask for appointed counsel if they cannot afford a lawyer, and start documenting every contact with the child and every effort to make contact. The petitioner must prove a ground by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence, and the grounds have elements that can be contested. Abandonment requires willfulness and a six-month window; a parent whose calls were blocked or whose address was withheld can show the absence was not willful. Failure to support requires an ability to pay and, for private petitions, an existing order or agreement. Failure to make progress requires a look at what the parent actually did under the case plan, and incapacity requires evidence that the condition will continue.
Even if a ground is proved, disposition is a second chance. Evidence that the child knows and loves the parent, that there is no adoptive placement ready, or that the child is old enough to have views the court should hear can persuade a judge that termination is not in the child’s best interest. Parents who are incarcerated, in treatment, or living out of state face a harder road but not a hopeless one; the question is always what the parent did with the ability they had.
What a respondent parent should not do is ignore the petition, miss the hearing, or wait until the week before to find a lawyer. Termination orders entered by default are entered every month in North Carolina, and they are very difficult to set aside.
Termination of Parental Rights FAQs
Can a parent voluntarily give up parental rights in North Carolina?
Not by simply asking the court. A parent can relinquish a child to DSS or a licensed agency for adoption, or consent to a specific adoption, under Chapter 48. Outside an adoption, courts will not terminate a parent’s rights on that parent’s own request, because termination exists to serve the child, not to relieve a parent of support.
How long does the other parent have to be absent before I can file?
Six consecutive months immediately before the petition for abandonment, or one year of willful nonpayment under an order or agreement for failure to support. The absence has to be willful, meaning the parent had the ability to maintain contact or pay and chose not to.
Does terminating the other parent’s rights end child support?
Going forward, yes. Arrears that built up before the order survive and remain collectible. Be aware that terminating the other parent’s rights also ends the child’s right to support from that parent, which matters if no stepparent is adopting.
Do I need a stepparent ready to adopt before I file?
No, but it helps at disposition. The court must find termination is in the child’s best interest, and a waiting adoptive parent is strong evidence of that. A petition that would leave the child with one legal parent and no adoption in sight is harder to win.
How long does a termination case take?
The statute calls for a hearing within ninety days of filing, but contested cases commonly take six months to a year, longer if the respondent cannot be found and must be served by publication, and longer still if the order is appealed.
Will the court appoint a lawyer for me?
If you are the respondent parent and cannot afford one, yes. G.S. 7B-1101.1 gives a respondent parent the right to counsel and to appointed counsel if indigent. Petitioners are not entitled to appointed counsel.
Can parental rights be terminated if the parent is in prison?
Incarceration alone is not a ground. The court looks at what the parent did with the means available: letters, calls, requests for visits, and whatever support could be paid. A parent who made those efforts has a defense to abandonment; a parent who made none does not. Incarceration does count toward the time the child has been out of the home in a DSS case.
What is the difference between termination and losing custody?
A custody order decides where the child lives and who makes decisions, and it can be modified later. Termination ends the parent-child relationship permanently and cannot be modified. A parent who loses custody is still a parent with rights to visitation, notice, and a future modification; a terminated parent is a legal stranger to the child.
Can termination be reversed?
Only on appeal, which must be noticed within thirty days of the order, or through reinstatement under G.S. 7B-1114, which is available only for a child who has not been adopted, is generally at least twelve, and has no permanent plan. Once an adoption is final, termination cannot be undone.
Can the other parent’s family still see the child after termination?
Not as a matter of right. Termination severs the legal relationship with the parent’s relatives as well. A biological grandparent who had a substantial relationship with the child may petition for visitation after a stepparent or relative adoption under G.S. 50-13.2A, and families can agree to contact voluntarily.
Is a termination hearing public?
No. Termination is a juvenile proceeding. The file is confidential, the hearing is closed, and the appellate opinions use initials rather than names.
Does the child get a say?
The child has a guardian ad litem who reports to the court on the child’s best interests, and the court may hear from an older child directly. The child’s bond with the parent and the child’s wishes are factors at disposition, though they do not control the outcome.
Facing a termination case?
Whether you are seeking to terminate an absent parent’s rights so your family can move forward, or you have been served with a petition and need to protect your relationship with your child, we can explain where you stand and what the court will require.
Managing Partner and Co-Founder, McIlveen Family Law Firm. Angela is a Board Certified Specialist in Family Law, certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, and an experienced family law trial attorney who represents clients across North Carolina. She personally reviewed this page for legal accuracy.
