Orange Cnty. Soc. Servs. Agency v. S. M. (In re Sofia M.)

*1039 We have encountered this narrative before. Mother makes no progress on her case plan for a whole year, then, when it finally sinks in that she is going to lose her parental rights, she begins eagerly complying with the plan. The twist in this case is that the child, Sofia, was 14 years old, and by the time mother decided to comply with the plan, Sofia was depressed and *1040 too hurt to want to spend any time with her. So she refused visits. At the 12-month review hearing, mother complained that *336 she had been prevented from visiting Sofia. The court left the visitation order in place, and even authorized visitation in a therapeutic setting, but terminated reunification services and set a selection and implementation hearing under Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26 (.26 hearing). 1 Sofia continued refusing visits and threatened to run away from therapy sessions if she were pressured.

At the .26 hearing mother filed a section 388 modification petition, seeking to reinstate services, arguing she had been denied the ability to establish the "beneficial relationship exception" to adoption. The court denied the petition, terminated parental rights, and selected…