In re M.S. CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant, D.S. (Mother), is the parent of M.S., a dependent child of

the juvenile court who will turn 18 years of age in June 2022. Mother appeals from the

August 5, 2021 orders terminating her parental rights to M.S. and selecting adoption as

M.S.’s permanent plan. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 366.26.)1 Mother claims (1) insufficient

evidence supports the court’s August 5 finding that M.S. was adoptable; and

(2) postjudgment evidence that, in September 2021, M.S. had left her prospective

adoptive parents’ home and no longer wished to be adopted by them is both admissible in

this appeal and undermines the adoptability finding. Thus, Mother claims the section

366.26 orders must be reversed.

Petitioner and respondent, Riverside County Department of Public Social Services

(DPSS), counters that (1) substantial evidence supports the August 5, 2021 adoptability

finding, and (2) this appellate court is not the proper forum to consider the postjudgment

evidence that M.S. left her adoptive home in September 2021 and no longer wished to be

adopted. DPSS points out that M.S. can petition the juvenile court to reinstate Mother’s

parental rights, before…