In North Carolina, grounds for terminating parental rights include:
- The parent has willingly abandoned the child for more than six months preceding the filing of a petition for Termination of Parental Rights (TPR)
- Abuse or neglect of the child;Willfully leaving a child or in foster care for more than 12 months
- Failing to pay child support for more than a year in defiance of a court order or other agreement
- The father of a child born out of wedlock making no attempt to establish paternity and/or failing to financially support the child
- The parent is physically, mentally, or in some other way, in capable of providing care for the child
- The parent murdered, attempted to murder or seriously harmed another of his or her children or another child residing in his or her home
- Other statutory grounds set forth in N.C.G.S. §7B-1111