The stakes in a dependency matter are extremely high. Indeed, one's parental rights over his child could be forever terminated in such a matter, so it is imperative that the parties involved receive sufficient notification of the hearings which take place and are given a full opportunity to participate. The trial court, in In the Interest of K.S., a Minor, Appeal of A.L.W., 2017 WL 1162449, has made it clear that proper notice and participation of the parties is absolutely essential in a dependency case.

In K.S., the child-at-issue (the child) was placed into a series of homes due to mistreatment and an inability of the child's parents to care for the child. Due to the instability of the child's housing, Children and Youth Services (CYS) eventually filed a shelter care application requesting temporary placement of the child into the custody of CYS. A hearing was scheduled for the shelter care application, however the child's mother (hereinafter mother) and father were both incarcerated at the time of that hearing.

The attorney for mother appeared at the hearing and requested a continuance of the same because, while mother wanted to attend the hearing, she was unable to do so due to her incarceration and, perhaps more importantly, the prison in which she was incarcerated refused to allow her to participate at the hearing by telephone. CYS opposed the continuance request on the basis that Mother, regardless of whether she could participate at the hearing, could not receive custody of the Child due to her incarceration. In other words, as placement was the subject of the hearing, and mother could not receive placement, her participation would not result in her receiving placement regardless of whether she appears or participates.