I live in Texas

In April child protective services closed the case on me and my ex boyfriend. At the time of closure they ordered that the child who had been in temporary placement with her aunt to remain in temporary placement. It was put to me appoint her power of attorney or we will have to place the child in foster care.

The POA states that the power of attorney shall remain in effect until all recommendations made by CPS have been completed by me & my ex boyfriend.

As CPS is no longer involved & POA's are only binding for 6 months & must be completed again to remain active.

Can her aunt refuse to return her once the 6 months has ended.

Can I refuse to sign another POA & simply state that I am taking my daughter home?

I have temporary custody & recieved notice of a prove up hearing scheduled for September.

Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

IF the court's order is that she have the child in a temp placement "until all recommendations made by CPS have been completed by me & my ex boyfriend", then auntie doesn't have to release the child until the court says so. The POA may expire, which would create issues if auntie was trying to register them for school or other things, but an order issued by a judge takes precidence over everything else. Presumably you'll complete whatever the courts wants you to do, and then you'll have a hearing where you'll tell the judge "hey, I did everything and I want my kids back". If the judge approves of your progress, then the order issues and you go pick up the child (or follow any visitation plan the court may alternatively provide).

Absolutely. Understanding that doing so may cause the court to assign legal guardianship to auntie so as to not have to deal with you being uncooperative. The court isn't going to let you circumvent it's wishes and orders - if you cooperate, things go easy, if you try to throw wrenches into the gears by not cooperating, you could find not only your temp guardianship gone, but could potentially even have your parental rights terminated.


If there's a court's order for temp placement with auntie, then taking the child means you'll be arrested for contempt of court at best, and kidnapping, at worst, which would expose you to additional problems, up to and including perminent severence of your parental rights if you don't follow the EXACT procedures that the court spells out for you. The court is in change here, and if you want to get your child back, you need to do what the court tells you...nothing more...and nothing less. Getting a child back from a CPS or court placement is never a "smash and grab" job, at least not if you plan to REMAIN a parent.

The "prove up" hearing is a good thing for you - this is the hearing where you'll show the judge that you've completed whatever the court wanted you (and BF?) to do. If that goes your way, then the POA issue should be mute anyway, as a positive hearing in a case like yours would typically be the point where the court orders that auntie is no longer needed. On the other hand, if the judge finds something wrong, it can extend the plan (and the judge can ORDER you to sign a POA or go to jail for contempt) or even terminate the plan and start foster care proceedings.

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