What the mom, grandparents, and children, are learning; is that they don't count.
The children (all children), are property of the state, and will go where the state says they should go- period.
Mom should be given a reasonable but strict time line to get her act together. However if during that time frame mom continues behavior harmful to the kids and makes no effort to change then terminate her rights and allow family to adopt first. As far as this article goes? Disabled persons even disabled grandparents, aunts and uncles, can raise kids. The kids need stability and love.
Now for the second part. The grandparents. There is no harder thing to do than take on kids from family members especially when the state takes themm into custody & mom is hostile and non compliant. You get grief from all sides. The parents come after you. The state Children's Services even though they took the kids into custody think Mommy's walk on water, and courts refuse to uphold their own orders and requirements.
All to often the family taking care of the kids will come under legal attack from the parents. In states like Tennessee you will get no help when they do so. If parents threaten and harass you and mistreat the kids over the phone and even encourage them to act out Children's Services does nothing nor does the courts. If you on the other hand show any displeasure with the mother even if it is your own son or daughter who lost the kids you are raising the court and Children's Services will remove them from you. The fact the kids are stable and doing OK means nothing. The fact you get them help above and beyond what anyone in the faster care system would do otherwise means nothing. If a kid is in serious trouble and mommy is encouraging or enabling the childs problems and you try to stop her you can't do that either.
In some states it's all about Mommy reunification even in abuse cases and the needs of the kids as such is a non issue. Did I mention the ones who write the foster care guidelines often have no children? Or that many of the caseworkers are fresh out of college and not mature enough or experienced enough to deal with the issues they handle?