Hearing; investigation and report

Every petition under section 571-61 shall be filed in duplicate and the clerk of the court in which the same is filed shall immediately forward a copy of the petition, and of the notice of the time and place of the hearing thereof, to the director of the department of human services. The director shall be permitted to appear and be heard at any such hearing on behalf of the petitioner or the child or minor or the State and shall have the same right of appeal as any party to the proceeding. The attorney general shall, at the request of the director, represent and defend the interests of the department in any such proceeding. Upon the request of any petitioning parent or parents or upon the request of the department of human services, any child-placing organization, approved by the department under section 346-17, shall be permitted to appear together with or in place of the department. If any petitioner or the department or any such child-placing organization approved by the department or any parent whose rights are sought to be terminated requests of the court a continuance of the hearing for the purpose of permitting an objective investigation of the circumstances of the minor and the parent or parents concerned, no judgment of termination shall be entered prior to the expiration of thirty days from the date of the request or until the earlier date of the filing of a report of the investigation. If the petition has been filed by or at the request of the department of human services or any such child-placing organization, or, in the event that a continuance has been requested as above provided, the department of human services shall prepare or procure and file in the termination proceeding a report of the facts disclosed as a result of investigation of the circumstances of the minor and the parent or parents whose rights are sought to be terminated. The court may, for good cause, grant extensions of the time within which such report must be filed. Any such report shall be incorporated in the record of the proceeding and shall be considered by the court in determining the issues presented by the petition. The court may, if it deems such action necessary, appoint a guardian ad litem to represent and defend the interests of the child or minor or of any minor parent.