Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 9 - FAMILY LAW (§§ 9-2-101 — 9-34-204) › Subtitle 3 - MINORS (§§ 9-25-101 — 9-34-204) › Chapter 29 - INTERSTATE COMPACTS (§§ 9-29-101 — 9-29-401) › Subchapter 2 - INTERSTATE COMPACT ON THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN (§§ 9-29-201 — 9-29-208) › Section 9-29-201 - Text of Compact

The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children is enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein in form substantially as follows:
INTERSTATE COMPACT ON THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN
ARTICLE I
Purpose and Policy
It is the purpose and policy of the party states to cooperate with each other in the interstate placement of children to the end that:
(a)
Each child requiring placement shall receive the maximum opportunity to be placed in a suitable environment and with persons or institutions having appropriate qualifications and facilities to provide a necessary and desirable degree and type of care.
(b)
The appropriate authorities in a state where a child is to be placed may have full opportunity to ascertain the circumstances of the proposed placement, thereby promoting full compliance with applicable requirements for the protection of the child.
(c)
The proper authorities of the state from which the placement is made may obtain the most complete information on the basis of which to evaluate a projected placement before it is made.
(d)
Appropriate jurisdictional arrangement for the care of children will be promoted.
ARTICLE II
Definitions
As used in this compact:
(a)
"Child" means a person who, by reason of minority, is legally subject to parental, guardianship, or similar control;
(b)
"Sending agency" means a party state, officer or employee thereof; a subdivision of a party state, or officer or employee thereof, a court of a party state, a person, corporation, association, charitable agency, or other entity which sends, brings, or causes to be sent or brought any child to another party state;
(c)
"Receiving state" means the state to which a child is sent, brought or caused to be sent or brought, whether by public authorities or private persons or agencies, and whether for placement with state or local public authorities or for placement with private agencies or persons;
(d)
"Placement" means:
(1)
The arrangement for the care of a child in a family, free or boarding home or in a child-caring agency or institution but does not include any institution caring for individuals with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, or epilepsy or any institution primarily educational in character, and any hospital or other medical facility; and
(2)
The arrangement for the care of a child in the home of his or her parent, other relative, or non-agency guardian in a receiving state when the sending agency is any entity other than a parent, relative, guardian or non-agency guardian making the arrangement for care as a plan exempt under Article VIII(a) of the compact.
(e)
(1)
"Foster care" means the care of a child on a twenty-four-hour-a-day basis away from the home of the child's parent or parents. The care may be by a relative of the child, by a non-related individual, by a group home, or by a residential facility or any other entity.
(2)
In addition, if twenty-four-hour-a-day care is provided by the child's parents by reason of a court ordered placement and not by virtue of the parent-child relationship, the care is foster care.
(3)
"Foster care" shall not include placement in a residential facility by a parent if a child welfare agency or court is not involved with the parent or child through an open case or investigation.
(f)
(1)
"Priority placement" means whenever a court, upon request or on its own motion or where court approval is required, determines that a proposed priority placement of a child from one (1) state into another state is necessary because placement is with a relative and:
(A)
The child is under four (4) years of age, including older siblings sought to be placed with the same proposed placement;
(B)
The child is in an emergency placement;
(C)
The court finds that the child has a substantial relationship with the proposed placement resource; or
(D)
There is an unexpected dependency due to a sudden or recent incarceration, incapacitation, or death of a parent or guardian.
(2)
The state agency has thirty (30) days to complete a request for a priority placement.
(3)
Requests for placement shall not be expedited or given priority except as outlined in this subsection.
(g)
"Home study" means a written report that is obtained after an investigation of a household and that may include a criminal background check, including a fingerprint-based criminal background check in the national crime information database and a local criminal background check on any person in the household sixteen (16) years of age and older.
ARTICLE III
Conditions for Placement
(a)
No sending agency shall send, bring, or cause to be sent or brought into any other party state any child for placement in foster care or as a preliminary to a possible adoption unless the sending agency shall comply with each and every requirement set forth in this article and with the applicable laws of the receiving state governing the placement of children therein.
(b)
Prior to sending, bringing, or causing any child to be sent or brought into a receiving state for placement in foster care or as a preliminary to a possible adoption, the sending agency shall furnish the appropriate public authorities in the receiving state written notice of the intention to send, bring, or place the child in the receiving state. The notice shall contain:
(1)
The name, date and place of birth of the child;
(2)
The identity and address or addresses of the parents or legal guardian;
(3)
The name and address of the person, agency, or institution to or with which the sending agency proposes to send, bring, or place the child;
(4)
A full statement of the reasons for such proposed action and evidence of the authority pursuant to which placement is proposed to be made.
(c)
Any public officer or agency in a receiving state which is in receipt of a notice pursuant to paragraph (b) of this article may request of the sending agency, or any other appropriate officer or agency of or in the sending agency's state, and shall be entitled to receive therefrom, such supporting or additional information as it may deem necessary under the circumstances to carry out the purpose and policy of this compact.
(d)
The child shall not be sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought into the receiving state until the appropriate public authorities in the receiving state shall notify the sending agency, in writing, to the effect that the proposed placement does not appear to be contrary to the interests of the child.
(e)
(1)
If the home study is denied, the sending state agency shall present the home study to the juvenile division judge in the sending state.
(2)
The sending state juvenile division judge shall review the home study and make specific written findings of fact regarding the concerns outlined in the home study.
(3)
If the sending state juvenile division court finds that the health and safety concerns cannot be addressed or cured by services, the court will not make the placement.
ARTICLE IV
Penalty for Illegal Placement
The sending, bringing, or causing to be sent or brought into any receiving state of a child in violation of the terms of this compact shall constitute a violation of the laws respecting the placement of children of both the state in which the sending agency is located or from which it sends or brings the child and of the receiving state. Such violation may be punished or subjected to penalty in either jurisdiction in accordance with its laws. In addition to liability for any such punishment or penalty, any such violation shall constitute full and sufficient grounds for the suspension or revocation of any license, permit, or other legal authorization held by the sending agency which empowers or allows it to place, or care for children.
ARTICLE V
Retention of Jurisdiction
(a)
The sending agency shall retain jurisdiction over the child sufficient to determine all matters in relation to the custody, supervision, care, treatment, and disposition of the child which it would have had if the child had remained in the sending agency's state, until the child is adopted, reaches majority, becomes self-supporting, or is discharged with the concurrence of the appropriate authority in the receiving state. Such jurisdiction shall also include the power to effect or cause the return of the child or its transfer to another location and custody pursuant to law. The sending agency shall continue to have financial responsibility for support and maintenance of the child during the period of the placement. Nothing contained herein shall defeat a claim of jurisdiction by a receiving state sufficient to deal with an act of delinquency or crime committed therein.
(b)
When the sending agency is a public agency, it may enter into an agreement with an authorized public or private agency in the receiving state providing for the performance of one (1) or more services in respect of such case by the latter as agent for the sending agency.
(c)
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prevent a private charitable agency authorized to place children in the receiving state from performing services or acting as agent in that state for a private charitable agency of the sending state, nor to prevent the agency in the receiving state from discharging financial responsibility for the support and maintenance of a child who has been placed on behalf of the sending agency without relieving the responsibility set forth in paragraph (a) hereof.
ARTICLE VI
Institutional Care of Delinquent Children
A child adjudicated delinquent may be placed in an institution in another party jurisdiction pursuant to this compact but no such placement shall be made unless the child is given a court hearing on notice to the parent or guardian with opportunity to be heard, prior to his being sent to such other party jurisdiction for institutional care and the court finds that:
1.
Equivalent facilities for the child are not available in the sending agency's jurisdiction; and
2.
Institutional care in the other jurisdiction is in the best interest of the child and will not produce undue hardship.
ARTICLE VII
Compact Administrator
The executive head of each jurisdiction party to this compact shall designate an officer who shall be general coordinator of activities under this compact in his jurisdiction and who, acting jointly with like officers of other party jurisdictions, shall have power to promulgate rules and regulations to carry out more effectively the terms and provisions of this compact.
ARTICLE VIII
Limitations
This compact shall not apply to:
(a)
(1)
Except as provided under subdivision (a)(2) of this section, the sending or bringing of a child into a receiving state by his parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult brother or sister, adult uncle or aunt, or his guardian and leaving the child with any such relative or nonagency guardian in the receiving state.
(2)
If the guardianship is established as a prelude to a non-relative adoption or to avoid compliance with this compact, the guardian shall comply with this compact.
(b)
Any placement, sending, or bringing of a child into a receiving state pursuant to any other interstate compact to which both the state from which the child is sent or brought and the receiving state are party, or to any other agreement between said states which has the force of law.
ARTICLE IX
Enactment and Withdrawal
This compact shall be open to joinder by any state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and, with the consent of Congress, the Government of Canada or any province thereof. It shall become effective with respect to any such jurisdiction when such jurisdiction has enacted the same into law. Withdrawal from this compact shall be by the enactment of a statute repealing the same, but shall not take effect until two (2) years after the effective date of such statute and until written notice of the withdrawal has been given by the withdrawing state to the governor of each other party jurisdiction. Withdrawal of a party state shall not affect the rights, duties, and obligations under this compact of any sending agency therein with respect to a placement made prior to the effective date of withdrawal.
ARTICLE X
Construction and Severability
The provisions of this compact shall be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes thereof. The provisions of this compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence, or provision of this compact is declared to be contrary to the constitution of any party state or of the United States or the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person, or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this compact and the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person, or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. If this compact shall be held contrary to the constitution of any state party thereto, the compact shall remain in full force and effect as to the remaining states and in full force and effect as to the state affected as to all severable matters.
Amended by Act 2013, No. 751,§ 1, eff. 8/16/2013
Acts 1979, No. 677, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 83-1201; Acts 2003, No. 1809, § 15; 2007, No. 372, § 1