STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT STATE OF LOUISIANA IN THE NO. 2019 CW 1542 INTEREST OF B. T.

NOVEMBER 21, 2019 In Re: Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, applying for supervisory writs, Juvenile Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, No. 105413.

BEFORE : McDONALD, THERIOT, AND CHUTZ, JJ.

STAY DENIED; WRIT GRANTED. The juvenile court's orders rendered at status conferences on November 7, 2019 and November 18, 2019 and signed on November 19, 2019, which ordered the Department of Children and Family Services to sign an enrollment form for the child to enlist in the military, are reversed.

“Guardianship” means the judicial placement of a child under the duty and authority of a guardian to make decisions in matters having a permanent effect on the life and development of the child as set forth in Article 719. La. Ch. Code art. 116(5.1), To establish guardianship, a motion for guardianship must be filed, a home study of the proposed guardian must be Submitted, a hearing must be held, and a written order including the findings upon which the order is based must be entered. See La. Ch. Code arts. 720, 721, and 722. “Legal custody” means the right to have physical custody of the child and to determine where and with whom the child shall reside; to exercise the rights and duty to protect, train, and discipline the child; the authority to consent to major medical, psychiatric, and surgical treatment; and to provide the child with food, shelter, education, and ordinary medical care, all subject to any residual rights possessed by the child’s parents. La. Ch. Code art. 116{12). Uniess the court specifies otherwise, a guardian shall exercise the rights and responsibilities of legal custody and shall have the authority to consent to the child’s marriage, to consent to his enlistment in the armed forces of the United States, and to make other decisions concerning the child, except the right to consent to the child’s adoption. La. Ch. Code art. VIS{(A). Where the Department of Children and Family Services has not been shown to be the guardian of the child, in this matter, it does not have authority to consent to the child's enlistment in the armed forces of the United States.

WRC COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT wll Reel DEPUTY CLERK OF COURT FOR THE COURT