SENATE BILL 315

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2023

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO CHILDREN; ENACTING THE REVISED INTERSTATE COMPACT ON THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN; AMENDING, REPEALING AND ENACTING SECTIONS OF THE NMSA 1978.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 32A-11-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1977, Chapter 151, Section 1) is repealed and a new Section 32A-11-1 NMSA 1978 is enacted to read:

     "32A-11-1. [NEW MATERIAL] INTERSTATE COMPACT.--The Revised Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children is hereby enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein in form substantially as follows:

REVISED INTERSTATE COMPACT ON THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN

ARTICLE 1. PURPOSE

     The purpose of the Revised Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children is to:

     A. provide a process through which children subject to this compact are placed in safe and suitable homes in a timely manner;

     B. facilitate ongoing supervision of a placement, the delivery of services and communication between the states;

     C. provide operating procedures that will ensure that children are placed in safe and suitable homes in a timely manner;

     D. provide for the promulgation and enforcement of administrative rules implementing the provisions of this compact and regulating the covered activities of the member states;

     E. provide for uniform data collection and information sharing between member states under this compact;

     F. promote coordination between this compact, the Interstate Compact for Juveniles, the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance and other compacts affecting the placement of and which provide services to children otherwise subject to this compact;

     G. provide for a state's continuing legal jurisdiction and responsibility for placement and care of a child that it would have had if the placement were intrastate; and

     H. provide for the promulgation of guidelines, in collaboration with Indian nations, tribes and pueblos, for interstate cases involving Indian children as is or may be permitted by federal law.

ARTICLE 2. DEFINITIONS

     As used in this compact:

     A. "approved placement" means the public child placing agency in the receiving state has determined that the placement is both safe and suitable for the child;

     B. "assessment" means an evaluation of a prospective placement by a public child placing agency in the receiving state to determine if the placement meets the individualized needs of the child, including but not limited to the child's safety and stability, health and well-being and mental, emotional and physical development. An assessment is only applicable to a placement by a public child placing agency;

     C. "child" means an individual who has not attained the age of eighteen;

     D. "certification" means to attest, declare or swear to before a judge or notary public;

     E. "default" means the failure of a member state to perform the obligations or responsibilities imposed upon it by this compact, the bylaws or rules of the interstate commission;

     F. "home study" means an evaluation of a home environment conducted in accordance with the applicable requirements of the state in which the home is located, and documents the preparation and the suitability of the placement resource for the placement of a child in accordance with the laws and requirements of the state in which the home is located;

     G. "Indian nations, tribes and pueblos" means any Indian tribe, band, nation, pueblo or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for services provided to Indians by the United States secretary of the interior because of their status as Indians, including any Alaskan native village as defined in section 3 (c) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act at 43 U.S.C. Section 1602(c);

     H. "interstate commission for the placement of children" means the commission that is created under Article 8 of this compact and that is generally referred to as the "interstate commission";

     I. "jurisdiction" means the power and authority of a court to hear and decide matters;

     J. "legal risk placement" or "legal risk adoption" means a placement made preliminary to an adoption where the prospective adoptive parents acknowledge in writing that a child can be ordered returned to the sending state or the birth mother's state of residence, if different from the sending state, and a final decree of adoption shall not be entered in any jurisdiction until all required consents are obtained or are dispensed with in accordance with applicable law;

     K. "member state" means a state that has enacted this compact;

     L. "noncustodial parent" means a person who, at the time of the commencement of court proceedings in the sending state, does not have sole legal custody of the child or has joint legal custody of a child and who is not the subject of allegations or findings of child abuse or neglect;

     M. "nonmember state" means a state that has not enacted this compact;

     N. "notice of residential placement" means information regarding a placement into a residential facility provided to the receiving state, including the name, date and place of birth of the child, the identity and address of the parent or legal guardian, evidence of authority to make the placement, and the name and address of the facility in which the child will be placed; "notice of residential placement" also includes information regarding a discharge and any unauthorized absence from the facility;

     O. "placement" means the act by a public or private child placing agency intended to arrange for the care or custody of a child in another state;

     P. "private child placing agency" means any private corporation, agency, foundation, institution or charitable organization, or any private person or attorney that facilitates, causes or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to another and that is not an instrumentality of the state or acting under color of state law;

     Q. "provisional placement" means a determination made by the public child placing agency in the receiving state that the proposed placement is safe and suitable and, to the extent allowable, the receiving state has temporarily waived its standards or requirements otherwise applicable to prospective foster or adoptive parents so as to not delay the placement. Completion of the receiving state requirements regarding training for prospective foster or adoptive parents shall not delay an otherwise safe and suitable placement;

     R. "public child placing agency" means any government child welfare agency or child protection agency or a private entity under contract with such an agency, regardless of whether they act on behalf of a state, county, municipality or other governmental unit and which facilitates, causes or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to another;

     S. "receiving state" means the state to which a child is sent, brought or caused to be sent or brought;

     T. "relative" means someone who is related to the child as a parent, step-parent, sibling by half or whole blood or by adoption, grandparent, aunt, uncle or first cousin or a non-relative with such significant ties to the child that they may be regarded as relatives as determined by the court in the sending state;

     U. "residential facility" means a facility providing a level of care that is sufficient to substitute for parental responsibility or foster care, and is beyond what is needed for assessment or treatment of an acute condition. For purposes of the compact, "residential facilities" do not include institutions primarily educational in character, hospitals or other medical facilities;

     V. "rule" means a written directive, mandate, standard or principle issued by the interstate commission promulgated pursuant to Article 9 of this compact that is of general applicability and that implements, interprets or prescribes a policy or provision of the compact; "rule" has the force and effect of an administrative rule in a member state, and includes the amendment, repeal or suspension of an existing rule;

     W. "sending state" means the state from which the placement of a child is initiated;

     X. "service member's permanent duty station" means the military installation where an active duty armed services member is currently assigned and is physically located under competent orders that do not specify the duty as temporary;

     Y. "service member's state of legal residence" means the state in which the active duty armed services member is considered a resident for tax and voting purposes;

     Z. "state" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and any other territory of the United States;

     AA. "state court" means a judicial body of a state that is vested by law with responsibility for adjudicating cases involving abuse, neglect, deprivation, delinquency or status offenses of individuals who have not attained the age of eighteen; and

     BB. "supervision" means monitoring provided by the receiving state once a child has been placed in a receiving state pursuant to this compact.

ARTICLE 3. APPLICABILITY

     A. Except as otherwise provided in Section B of this article, this compact shall apply to:

          (1) the interstate placement of a child subject to ongoing court jurisdiction in the sending state, due to allegations or findings that the child has been abused, neglected or deprived as defined by the laws of the sending state; provided however, that the placement of such a child into a residential facility shall only require notice of residential placement to the receiving state prior to placement;

          (2) the interstate placement of a child adjudicated delinquent or unmanageable based on the laws of the sending state and subject to ongoing court jurisdiction of the sending state if:

                (a) the child is being placed in a residential facility in another member state and is not covered under another compact; or

                (b) the child is being placed in another member state and the determination of safety and suitability of the placement and services required is not provided through another compact; and

          (3) the interstate placement of any child by a public child placing agency or private child placing agency as defined in this compact as a preliminary step to a possible adoption.

     B. The provisions of this compact shall not apply to:

          (1) the interstate placement of a child in a custody proceeding in which a public child placing agency is not a party; provided that the placement is not intended to effectuate an adoption;

          (2) the interstate placement of a child with a non-relative in a receiving state by a parent with the legal authority to make such a placement; provided, however, that the placement is not intended to effectuate an adoption;

          (3) the interstate placement of a child by one relative with the lawful authority to make such a placement directly with a relative in a receiving state;

          (4) the placement of a child, not subject to Section A of this article into a residential facility by the child's parent;

          (5) the placement of a child with a noncustodial parent; provided that:

                (a) the noncustodial parent proves to the satisfaction of a court in the sending state a substantial relationship with the child;

                (b) the court in the sending state makes a written finding that placement with the noncustodial parent is in the best interests of the child; and

                (c) the court in the sending state dismisses its jurisdiction in interstate placements in which the public child placing agency is a party to the proceeding;

          (6) a child entering the United States from a foreign country for the purpose of adoption or leaving the United States to go to a foreign country for the purpose of adoption in that country;

          (7) cases in which a United States citizen child living overseas with the child's family, at least one of whom is in the United States armed services and who is stationed overseas, is removed and placed in a state; and

          (8) the sending of a child by a public child placing agency or a private child placing agency for a visit as defined by the rules of the interstate commission.

     C. For purposes of determining the applicability of this compact to the placement of a child with a family in the armed services, the public child placing agency or private child placing agency may choose the state of the service member's permanent duty station or the service member's declared legal residence.

     D. Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prohibit the concurrent application of the provisions of this compact with other applicable interstate compacts, including the Interstate Compact for Juveniles and the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance. The interstate commission may in cooperation with other interstate compact commissions having responsibility for the interstate movement, placement or transfer of children, promulgate like rules to ensure the coordination of services, timely placement of children and the reduction of unnecessary or duplicative administrative or procedural requirements.

ARTICLE 4. JURISDICTION

     A. Except as provided in Section H of Article 4 and Paragraphs (2) and (3) of Section B of Article 5 concerning private and independent adoptions, and in interstate placements in which the public child placing agency is not a party to a custody proceeding, the sending state shall retain jurisdiction over a child with respect to all matters of custody and disposition of the child that it would have had if the child had remained in the sending state. Such jurisdiction shall also include the power to order the return of the child to the sending state.

     B. When an issue of child protectio