In Re Damon M.

BELL, Chief Judge. This consolidated appeal, consisting of four cases, involving seven children, all committed to the care and custody of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (the respondent or the Department), and in foster care for at least one year, presents a single issue: whether a court order amending a permanency plan, determined pursuant to Md.Code (1996, 1998 Repl.Vol., 2000 Supp.) § 3-826.1 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, and entered after a hearing to determine or review that plan, is an immediately appealable order. In each of the cases, the child or children had been adjudicated, by the District Court of Maryland, sitting in Montgomery County as a Juvenile Court, in need of assistance (CINA), pursuant to Md.Code (1974, 1998 Repl.Vol., 2000 Supp.) § 3-812 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. In three of the cases, In Re: Damon M., In Re: Shaunna A, and In Re: Brian and Tony J., the court entered its order amending the permanency plan 1 for the ⁴³¹ affected child or children from reunification with the child’s or children’s mother to either long term foster care or permanent foster care, after conducting periodic reviews of that plan, as required by § 3 — 826.1(f). 2 In the case of In Re: Marcello, ⁴³² Lenny, and Keshya K, the court, pursuant to § 3-826.1(e), 3 determined at the permanency planning hearing the permanency plan for the children, which was adoption.

In each ease, the mother noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. The intermediate appellate court, in In Re: Damon M., 131 Md.App. 449 , 749 A.2d 231 (2000), held that the court’s order was not a final order and, therefore, dismissed the appeal. By unreported opinions, the Court of Special Appeals dismissed the other appeals on the authority of In Re: Damon M. We granted certiorari, see In Re: Damon M., 359 Md. 668 , 755 A.2d 1139 (2000), and now reverse. "(c) At the permanency planning hearing for each child in placement, the court shall: "(1) Determine the permanency plan for the child, including whether the child should be: "(i) Returned to the parent or guardian; "(ii) Placed with relatives to whom adoption or guardianship is granted; "(iii) Placed for adoption; "(iv) Emancipated; "(v) Because of the child’s special needs or circumstances, continued in placement on a permanent or long-term basis; or "(vi) Because of the child’s special needs or circumstances, continued in placement for a specified period.” The petitioners argue that orders, emanating from “a hearing to review the permanency plan” or a permanency planning hearing, that change the permanency plan from reunification with the parent are appealable. 4 Noting the conclusion of the ⁴³³ Court of Special Appeals in In re Damon M., that there was no final judgment in that case because the trial court’s order “neither established conclusively nor effected any actual change in Damon’s custody; DHHS continued to maintain custody of Damon,” 131 Md.App. at 458 , 749 A.2d at 236 , they maintain that, even if not final, the orders are appealable pursuant to Md.Code (1974, 1998 Rep.

Vol.) § 12-303(3)(x) of the Courts & Judicial Proceedings Article. 5 The petitioners submits: “The orders in all the cases at bar clearly affected the terms of the original custody orders, deprived the parents of their rights to have custody immediately or in the foreseeable future, and generated a profound change in the ability of the parents to seek custody. Moreover, in each of the cases, the court, as part of the permanency plan, ordered that placement out of the parent’s home be continued, a decree necessarily denying the parent custody. As such, the orders, if not final, were clearly interlocutory orders subject to appeal.” The respondent sees the issue quite differently. It argues that “an order changing the permanency plan for a child in out-of-home placement does not give rise to any of the essential conditions of appealability set forth in § 12-303(3)(x)”; it certainly did not deprive the parent of custody.

That, it points out, occurred long before the review hearings and the permanency planning hearing that generated these appeals. Nor, the respondent maintains, does an order changing the permanency plan for a child in out-of-home placement change ⁴³⁴ the terms of custody to bring the order within the § 12-303(3)(x). In that regard, the respondent notes that a particular permanency plan does not carry with it a particular level of visitation. It asserts, in any event, that the respondents are not aggrieved by the orders appealed from, their visitation rights having been unaffected thereby; the juvenile court ordered that the petitioners continue to have visitation at a level consistent with the visitation they previously enjoyed.

Finally, the respondent disputes the petitioner’s assertion that an order changing the permanency plan for a child in out-of-home placement generates “a profound change in the ability of the parents to seek custody.” It believes that short of a termination of their parental rights, there is no legal impediment to the petitioners’ seeking and obtaining custody of their children. Generally, appeals may be taken only from final judgments. See Md.Code (1974, 1998 Repl.VoL) § 12-301 of the Courts & Judicial Proceedings Article, which provides that “[A] party may appeal from a final judgment entered in a civil ... case,” whether entered in the exercise of original, special, limited, or statutory authority, unless “expressly denied by law.” See also Md. Rule 2-602. There are exceptions to the final judgment appealability rule, however.

Section 12-303 is one. It permits a party to appeal certain enumerated interlocutory orders. Relevant for our purposes is § 12-303(3)(x), which provides: “A party may appeal from any of the following interlocutory orders entered by a circuit court in a civil case: * * * $ “(3) An order: Hi H* 4s H5 “(x) Depriving a parent, grandparent, or natural guardian of the care and custody of his child, or changing the terms of such an order.” ⁴³⁵ Section 3-826.1 requires the court, not later than 11 months after a child found to be in need of assistance has been placed in foster care, see also Md.Code (1989, 1991 Repl.Vol., 1997 Cum Supp.) § 5-501(m) of the Family Law Article, to hold a permanency planning hearing to determine the permanency plan for that child. § 3 — 826.1(a)(1). At that hearing, for each child in placement and in determining the plan, the court is required to make certain decisions and findings, § 3-826.1(c), specifically, whether the child should be: returned to the parent or guardian, § 3-826.1(c)(l)(i); placed with relatives to whom adoption or guardianship is granted, § 3 — 826.1(c) (1) (ii); placed for adoption, § 3-826.1(c)(l)(iii); emancipated, § 3-826.1(c)(l)(iv); or because of the child’s special needs or circumstances, continued in placement on a permanent or long-term basis or for a specified period. § 3-826.1(c)(l)(v) and (vi).

There are restrictions on the court’s ability to continue a child in placement because of the child’s special needs or circumstances. § 3-826.1(d). That section prohibits the court from using that option “unless it finds that the agency to which the child is committed has documented a compelling reason for determining that it would not be in the best interest of the child to: “(1) Return home; “(2) Be referred for termination of parental rights; or “(3) Be placed for adoption or guardianship with a specified and appropriate relative or legal guardian willing to care for the child.” Section 3 — 826.1(f) mandates periodic reviews of the permanency plan by the court. Subsection (f)(l)(i) provides that such reviews will be “no less frequently than every six months until commitment is rescinded.” If, however, at the permanency planning hearing or a subsequent review hearing, the court, inter alia, orders a child continued in permanent foster care, the court is no longer required to hold the review hearings at six month intervals. Subsection (f)(l)(ii).

As is ⁴³⁶ true of the initial permanency planning hearing, the court must make some determinations at the hearing to review the permanency plan. § 3 — 826.1(f)(2). Among other things, in addition to determining whether the commitment remains necessary and appropriate, subsection (f)(2)(i), and evaluating the progress made toward alleviating or mitigating the causes of the commitment, subsection (f)(2)(iii), the court is required to “[d]etermine the extent of compliance with the permanency plan,” subsection (f)(2)(ii), and to change it “if a change in the permanency plan would be in the child’s best interest.” Subsection (f)(2)(v). The permanency plan is an integral part of the statutory scheme designed to expedite the movement of Maryland’s children from foster care to a permanent