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Foster care bill could allow for faster termination of parental rights - North Carolina Health News https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2019/08/27/foster-care-bill-allows-faster-parental-rights-termination/[8/28/2019 9:53:12 AM] This week, Rachel Lankford’s daughter Marleigh starts kindergarten. The two have been reunited for several years after Marleigh spent time in foster care. Photo courtesy: Rachel Lankford But Horton said that it can be hard to predict who will be successful. Lankford, who eventually got to Horizons, was one of them, but it didn’t look that way at first. Even after her daughter was born, Lankford struggled, at times leaving Marleigh with her own parents. She was in and out of treatment, and relapsed several times. Eventually she landed in jail after her father called the police. Lankford was remanded to Orange County’s drug court, where she encountered a handful of social workers and jurists doling out tough love and tough justice. It took her a couple months to get with the program. “When Judge Buckner looked at me and told me I’ll take that kid and I’ll adopt her out, something snapped that day,” she said. At the time, Marleigh was about a year and a half old. She wanted to go to Horizons’ program for inpatient treatment. Finally, in 2015, a place for her opened up, she graduated the program nine months later, spending almost six months without seeing her child. Later, she graduated from drug court and regained custody a few months later. Not ideal parenting Reggie O’Rourke, the assistant counsel for the state’s guardian ad litem program. also objected to provisions in HB 918. He reminded the committee that termination of parental rights is considered the “civil death penalty.” “It is the most serious thing we do in the law,” he told the judiciary committee members. “It