Wyoming panel advances bill adding relative guardianship as new ground for termination of parental rights

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Olsen on the committee's voice vote advanced Senate File 22, a proposal to add the existence of a long-term guardianship with a relative as a tenth statutory ground for termination of parental rights in Wyoming.

The bill's sponsor, Senator Schueller, said the measure would allow courts to terminate parental rights where “the child has been appointed a guardian who is a relative of the child; the child has been under the guardian's care for more than 24 months; and the parent is unfit to have the custody and control of the child.” He told the committee that relatives are increasingly raising children and that permanency can reduce trauma for children who have been “bounced around.”

Supporters described cases in which grandparents and other relatives have provided stable homes for children while parents struggled with addiction or criminal involvement. Pat Hartley, testifying as a grandmother and guardian, described obtaining guardianship for her grandson at age 3 and finalizing adoption at age 7 after seven years of legal barriers. “We finally obtained legal guardianship when he was 3 years old. What we're not finally able to adopt until he was 7,” Hartley said, urging the committee to provide a clearer path to permanency.

A University of Wyoming law-clinic student, Carson Lougee, opposed the bill. Lougee said termination of parental rights (TPR) is the “civil death penalty” and warned the proposed ground could chill parents from using guardianship as a permanency tool. He argued that expanding guardianship law — rather than adding guardianship as a ground for TPR — would better protect children and relatives while avoiding costly litigation.

Committee members questioned the choice of a 24-month threshold and whether the statute should require consecutive months. Senator Cole and others asked if parents would ever have an opportunity to resume rights; committee members and the sponsor noted that under current law, termination is final. The sponsor accepted a friendly amendment to change the draft language from “more than 24 months” to “at least 24 consecutive months,” and the committee also amended draft language to use the phrase “a finding that the parent is unfit to have custody and control of the child.” Those amendments passed.

Corinne Schmidt, director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services, told the committee that TPR proceedings sit outside routine child-welfare services and that DFS typically steps out of a case once a guardianship is in place. She said the department was present “in case there were questions” but told members the statute for TPR is separate from DFS's child-welfare casework.

After public testimony and debate the committee recorded a roll-call vote on final passage: Senator Crago, Senator Crum, Senator Cole and Chairman Olsen voted aye; one senator was recorded as excused. The committee chairman announced “4 ayes, 1 excused.”

The bill sponsor and several members framed the proposal as a narrowly drawn additional tool aimed at achieving permanency for children living long term with relatives, while opponents urged the Legislature to prefer expanded guardianship remedies that avoid severing parental rights altogether.

Votes at a glance: Senate File 22 — motion to move bill carried; amendments to change the time standard to “at least 24 consecutive months” and to require “a finding that the parent is unfit” were adopted; final committee vote recorded as 4 ayes, 0 no, 1 excused. The bill was reported favorably by the committee.

A next-step scheduling or floor referral was not recorded in the transcript of this meeting.