D.O.

BACKGROUND

A. Initial Proceedings

Mother and father share four male children who are the subjects of the dependency

proceedings underlying these writ petitions: D.O. (born 2015), G.O. (born 2017), S.O.

(born 2018) and T.O. (born 2019).

In June 2022 the children’s younger half sister was hospitalized for severe

malnutrition. All the children were living with mother at the time. In July, San

Bernardino County Children & Family Services (the department) removed the four boys

from mother’s care and placed them with father. That same month the department filed a

petition under section 300, subdivision (j), as to each of the four boys, alleging abuse of

their sibling. In its jurisdictional/dispositional report the department recommended the

1 Unlabeled statutory citations refer to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

2 petition be sustained, the children remain with father, that father receive family

maintenance services, and that mother receive family reunification services. Father lived

with his now wife (stepmother) and the children’s older stepsiblings.

At the jurisdiction/disposition hearing in October 2022, the juvenile court

followed the department’s…