In re R.B. CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Dependency Jurisdiction In December 2022, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (the Department) received a referral alleging Father engaged in a violent altercation with Mother while she was holding the child. Father and Mother were not residing together at the time. The Department began investigating and removed Minor from parental custody (pursuant to a court order) in January 2023, when Minor was four months old. That same month, the Department filed a four-count dependency petition alleging Minor was at risk of harm from his parents’ domestic violence, from Mother’s history of substance abuse including methamphetamine and alcohol (and Father’s failure to protect Minor from the same), and because Minor’s siblings had previously been declared dependents of the juvenile court due to Mother’s substance abuse.

3 The juvenile court later sustained the petition in its entirety at a jurisdiction hearing. The court’s disposition order required Father to participate in a full drug and alcohol program; to submit to random and on demand drug and alcohol testing weekly; and to participate in a 52-week domestic violence program, a…