Alexis Welsh v. Arkansas Department of Human Services and Minor Child

── Alexis Welsh v. Arkansas Department of Human Services and Minor Child ── Court: Court of Appeals of Arkansas Date: April 29, 2026 Category: General Cite as 2026 Ark. App. 258 ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION II No. CV-25-731 ALEXIS WELSH Opinion Delivered April 29, 2026 APPELLANT APPEAL FROM THE HOT SPRING COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT V. [NO. 30JV-23-82] ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HONORABLE STEPHEN L. SHIRRON, HUMAN SERVICES AND MINOR JUDGE CHILD APPELLEES AFFIRMED BART F. VIRDEN, Judge Alexis Welsh appeals the Hot Spring County Circuit Court order terminating her parental rights to MC2, who was two years old when she was removed from Alexis’s custody.1 Alexis argues on appeal that the circuit court was without statutory authority to consider the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ (the Department’s) termination petition because MC2 had been placed in her father’s permanent custody. She also challenges the court’s best-interest finding, arguing that there is insufficient evidence of potential harm. We disagree and affirm. 1 Alexis’s other children, MC1 and MC3, are not parties to this appeal. The termination of Alexis’s parental rights to MC1 and MC3 is the subject of the companion case, Welsh v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, 2026 Ark. App. 259, ___ S.W.3d ___, also handed down today.  I. Relevant Facts On June 19, 2023, the Department exercised a seventy-two-hour emergency hold over MC1 (age 4), MC2 (age 2), and MC3 (newborn) on June 19, 2023. On June 23, the Department filed a petition for dependency-neglect regarding the children and named Johnathon Mason as MC1’s father. MC3’s father was not identified during the case. The court identified Christopher Krum as MC2’s putative father. In the affidavit attached to the petition, the Department alleged the following. MC3 tested positive for amphetamines at birth. Alexis tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamines, though she initially denied drug use. Later, she admitted she had recently taken pills and snorted an unknown substance. Alexis’s parents had physical custody of MC1 and MC2, but Alexis refused to tell the caseworker where they were. When the caseworker went to Alexis’s mother’s home, the driveway gate was locked, and she refused to respond to the caseworker’s honking or phone calls. Eventually, the caseworker was able to assess the home and found it piled high with trash, boxes, and clothing and smelling strongly of trash and rotten food. Alexis was drug tested, and the test was invalid due to the temperature of the sample. Alexis denied having a drug problem and refused inpatient treatment. The children were removed due to Alexis’s drug abuse, Garrett’s Law, Alexis’s hindering the investigation, and the previous maltreatment of a child in her care. An ex parte order for emergency custody was entered on June 23. The court found that the Department had been involved with the family since August 13, 2018, and Alexis had received services that had not prevented the children’s removal from her custody. On 2 July 7, the circuit court entered the probable-cause order, finding that there was probable cause that emergency conditions necessitated the removal of the children from Alexis’s custody. The August 15 adjudication order reflected Alexis’s stipulation that the children were adjudicated dependent-neglected. The court set the goal of the case as reunification. In the February 8, 2024 review order, the court found that Christopher, who lived in Texas, is MC2’s father, and the court was waiting for the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) home study to b