Legal Question in Family Law in Kansas

In Kansas, there is a specific legal proceeding for terminating parental rights. While a guilty plea to endangering the welfare of a different child is not sufficient on its own to terminate parental rights, it could be enough to severely restrict, or possibly even eliminate parenting time for the father of your child, depending on the circumstances.

A successful Termination of Parental Rights action terminates all of the rights and all of the duties of a parent towards a child. This includes the duty to pay child support. The Courts in Kansas therefore generally do not allow a Termination of Parental Rights unless there is another person who is willing and able to adopt the child and assume those rights and responsibilities, even when both parents agree to it.

Even if a step parent is willing and able to adopt the child, an involuntary termination of parental rights is not likely to be ordered without a strong showing of abuse or neglect toward the child in question. On its own, the conviction would not be sufficient to terminate parental rights for your child, and would likely not even be enough to terminate parental rights for the victim of child endangerment.

The better course of action is to file a Motion to Modify the Parenting Plan. The Court can order supervised parenting time or no parenting time, if you can convince the Court that it would be in the best interests of your child to do so. Another advantage of this option for you over a Termination of Rights proceeding is that your child's father would still be obligated to pay you child support.