## Facts

- S.R.C.-Q. was born in 2012 in Wisconsin and lived there with Mother and the maternal grandmother.
- In 2014, paternity testing confirmed Father, a Kansas resident, as the child’s natural father.
- Mother and the child visited Kansas multiple times, then moved to Kansas to live with Father in May 2014.
- Father sought a protection-from-abuse order, alleging Mother assaulted him and posed a danger to herself and the child; Mother was arrested and criminally charged.
- These events led to a child-in-need-of-care (CINC) proceeding; the court placed the child in temporary custody of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and the child was placed with Father in Kansas.
- Mother returned to Wisconsin to live with the maternal grandmother and requested that the child be placed with her there.
- The Kansas court requested an ICPC home study from Wisconsin, but nearly nine months passed without receipt of the report.
- The district magistrate judge ruled the ICPC did not apply to an out-of-state placement with a natural parent, terminated DCF custody, placed the child with Mother in Wisconsin, and ordered substantial interstate visitation for Father in alternating two-week blocks.
- Father and the guardian ad litem (GAL) appealed, challenging ICPC inapplicability, the custody disposition, and the visitation schedule.

## Issues

1. Whether the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) applies to an out-of-state placement of a child with a natural parent.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion by terminating DCF custody and awarding custody to Mother in Wisconsin in the CINC disposition.
3. Whether the district court abused its discretion in setting an interstate visitation schedule consisting of alternating two-week blocks.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the orders.
- The ICPC was held inapplicable to interstate placement of a child with a natural parent.
- The court found no abuse of discretion in placing the child in Mother’s custody in Wisconsin and terminating DCF custody.
- The court found no abuse of discretion in the interstate visitation schedule ordered for Father.

## Legal Principles

- The ICPC governs interstate placements for foster care, institutional care, and similar nonparental arrangements; it does not apply to placement of a child with the child’s own parent, even if the parent resides out of state.
- In a CINC disposition, custody and visitation determinations are reviewed for abuse of discretion; reversal requires a showing the decision was unreasonable or based on legal or factual error.
- A trial court may place a child with an out-of-state parent and end agency custody without awaiting ICPC processes, so long as the disposition is supported by the record and serves the child’s best interests.
- Trial courts have broad discretion to structure interstate visitation in light of practical constraints and the child’s welfare.

## Conclusion

The Kansas Court of Appeals held that the ICPC does not restrict interstate placement with a natural parent and affirmed the district court’s CINC disposition placing the child with Mother in Wisconsin, terminating DCF custody, and ordering an alternating two-week interstate visitation schedule for Father.


In re Interest of S.R.C.-Q., 52 Kan. App. 2d 454, 367 P.3d 1276 (Kan. Ct. App. 2016)