Mother left her newborn at the hospital. That’s not neglect, N.J. top court says. (2024)

A mother did not abuse or neglect her newborn daughter by leaving her in the hospital after the baby was born and giving authorities an incorrect phone number and address, New Jersey’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

Child welfare experts predicted the decision would set an important precedent by requiring the state child welfare system to demonstrate a child has been or will be harmed imminently before a child is taken from a family and parents are deemed unfit.

The mother, identified by the pseudonym “Beth,” and her newborn “Mia” tested positive for marijuana upon the baby’s birth in June 2020. The hospital, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, called the state child welfare system, the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency, and at first concluded Beth had abandoned the baby when she failed to return to retrieve the child and could not otherwise be tracked down. Mia spent two days in the hospital before the division placed her in a foster home.

The division later dropped the abandonment offense and filed a claim of abuse and neglect instead. A trial court and an appeals court agreed Beth had been abusive and neglectful.

A unanimous Supreme Court, however, disagreed and overturned those decisions.

“Beth did not carelessly leave Mia alone on a street corner or in an alleyway without food or shelter, putting her at risk. Beth left Mia at a hospital -- one of the safest places for a newborn child to be,” wrote Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis for a unanmious court.

“There is no question that Mia would be (and was) provided with food, clothing, shelter, and medical care if needed while in the hospital. It is undisputed that Beth provide the Division with incorrect contact information and failed to return to take custody of her child, but those facts are insufficient to substantiate an abuse and neglect finding,” according to the 27-page ruling.

“In order to substantiate an abuse or neglect finding, the division must prove that a child’s ‘physical, mental, or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired” due to the parent’s failure to ‘exercise a minimum degree of care,’ “ the decision said. “Nothing in the facts suggest that Beth’s actions impaired Mia or put Mia in imminent danger of being impaired while she remained in the safety of the hospital’s care.”

The mother was represented by the Office of the Public Defender, which declined to comment.

Jeyanthi Rajaraman, associate director of litigation for the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law, said the decision clarifies “the legal standards and statutory requirements for what imminent and danger means.”

“This is incredibly helpful for both practitioners and families and should result in less family separations,” she said.

Molly Linhorst, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which filed a brief in support of the parent, praised the decision.

“Today’s ruling affirmed what we knew to be true: The Division of Child Protection and Permanency should focus its efforts on uplifting children to thrive – not penalizing parents,” Linhorst said. “Abuse or neglect findings have serious, lifelong consequences that indefinitely harm a person’s employment and family caregiving prospects.”

Mary M. McManus-Smith, chief counsel for Family Law and litigation director for Legal Services of New Jersey, a nonprofit that represents represents indigent parents in child welfare matters, said the decision was an important win for families.

“The Division detailing a parade of possible bad outcomes from a situation is not enough, and until this case has been a frequent practice of DCPP,” McManus-Smith said. “Going forward, the court’s decision today makes clear that the standard for child abuse or neglect requires either actual injury to the child or ‘imminent danger of the child becoming impaired.’”

The ruling would appear to advance a family-first philosophy espoused by state Department of Children and Families Commissioner Christine Beyer that focuses more on keeping families intact and less on punishing parents who are not intentionally harmful to their children and placing children in foster care. The 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer and the racial reckoning that government entities face in the aftermath of his death have focused attention on how child welfare agencies across the country too often target Black families, who statistically are more likely to be poor.

There were 5,543 children in foster homes in 2018, when Gov. Phil Murphy took office; there were 2,939 in 2023, according to the department’s website.

Beth’s race and ethnicity are not mentioned in the decision. She was unemployed and living with her grandmother in Irvington when she went into labor four years ago. While she was still in the hospital, Beth had agreed to a home assessment by the division and accept family support services offered by the division. Then she made it difficult for the caseworker to find her by giving false information.

At trial, Beth’s attorney argued “this is not a case of . . . a parent failing to provide for her baby,” but was instead “the responsible choice of a desperate young mother who left her baby at the hospital where she would receive shelter and care.” Beth was being punished because she lied to child welfare workers, not because she caused any harm, her attorneys said according to the ruling.

“Despite testing positive for marijuana at birth, Mia was a healthy child; she did not experience any withdrawal symptoms, and she did not need any emergency medical care while in the hospital prior to the division taking custody of her and placing her in a (foster) home,” according to the ruling.

It is not disclosed in the ruling who has custody of Mia.

Mary Coogan, president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, a nonprofit family advocacy group, said she agreed with the ruling, but also felt sympathy for the child welfare system, which must make the best decision in the moment on a child’s behalf.

“I do appreciate the struggle of the division. To take custody of a child, the law requires them to make an allegation of abuse or neglect against the parent,” Coogan said. “We need to find a better way o help a parent who knows they can’t take care of their child and need to leave their child in a safe environment.”

The attorney general’s office, which represents state agencies in lawsuits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on X at @SusanKLivio.