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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 7-515 / 07-0761 Filed July 25, 2007

IN THE INTEREST OF B.T., Minor Child, K.A.D., Mother, Appellant. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Monroe County, William S. Owens, Associate Juvenile Judge.

K.D. appeals from the denial of her request for termination of placement and return of custody of B.T. to her. AFFIRMED.

Jonathan Willier, Centerville, for appellant mother. Victoria Siegel, Ottumwa, for father. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Bruce Kempkes, Assistant Attorney General, and Steven Goodlow, County Attorney, for appellee State. Mary Krafka of Krafka Law Office, Ottumwa, for minor child.

Considered by Huitink, P.J., and Zimmer and Vaitheswaran, JJ.

2 HUITINK, P.J. K.D. appeals from the denial of her request to terminate placement and return custody of her child to her. K.D. is the mother of B.T. (age fourteen). B.T.'s father, T.T., is not a party to this appeal. B.T. is currently in the custody of his paternal grandfather. On April 19, 2006, the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) and a police officer investigated a report that B.T. had been left at his mother's home alone and unsupervised for an entire weekend. At the time of the investigation, K.D. still had custody of her three other children. There were allegations, which she denied, that she had also left them alone and unsupervised on other occasions. The children were placed with their respective fathers, and they are not subjects of this appeal. B.T. was adjudicated a child in need of assistance (CINA) under Iowa Code sections 232.2(6)(b) (parent has physically abused or neglected child (or is imminently likely to do so)) and (c)(2) (child is likely to suffer harm due to parent's failure to exercise care in supervising child) (2005). At a dispositional hearing on April 9, 2007, K.D. asked the district court to return custody of B.T. to her. The district court denied the request. On appeal, K.D. argues the juvenile court erred in finding that the child's placement should not be terminated and custody returned to the mother. We review K.D.'s claims de novo. In re C.B., 611 N.W.2d 489, 492 (Iowa 2000). "[A] placement shall be terminated and the child returned to the child's home if the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the child will not suffer harm in the manner specified in section 232.2, subsection 6." Iowa Code

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