In re Y.S. CA1/2

BACKGROUND

The Family Tiffany’s involvement with the Agency dates back to 1998, when her first child— born when Tiffany was only 14 years old—was detained due to Tiffany’s incarceration. Her parental rights were terminated, and the child was placed for adoption. She subsequently had five more children, ranging in age from four to 12 years old at the time this dependency proceeding commenced. Since the initial referral in 1998, the family has been the subject of at least 18 referrals, which, according the Agency, have involved “emotional abuse, mother and father’s substance abuse, physical abuse of the children, neglect, educational neglect, mother’s mental health concerns, domestic violence, caretaker absence/incapacity, mother and child’s positive tox screens, child abandonment and medical and environmental neglect.” In July 2010, a referral alleging abuse and neglect led to the filing of a section 300 petition and removal of the five children from the care of Tiffany and Marcelo R., the father of the four younger children.2 After completing a substance abuse program in the fall of 2012, Tiffany reunified with her children, and in December 2012, the dependency was dismissed,…