In re P.C. CA4/2

I.

INTRODUCTION

P.C. and her mother, B.M. (Mother), tested positive for controlled substances

when P.C. was born in December 2022. Within days, the Riverside County Department

of Social Services (the Department) filed a petition on P.C.’s behalf under Welfare and 1 Institutions Code section 300, subdivisions (b)(1) and (g), which alleged, among other

things, that Father’s whereabouts were unknown and thus he could not care for P.C. P.C.

was ordered detained from both parents the following day. In the following months, the

juvenile court sustained the Department’s petition, bypassed reunification services for

both parents (see § 361.5, subd. (b)), found that the Department had “exercised due

1 Unless otherwise noted, all further statutory references are to Welfare and Institutions Code.

2 diligence in attempting to find” Father, and eventually set the matter for a section 366.

hearing.

In late July 2023, Father filed a section 388 petition seeking a new jurisdictional

hearing, which the juvenile court denied. Father then filed a second section 388 petition

in November 2023 requesting reunification services and relative placement. Around the

same time, Mother filed…