2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 32A - Children's Code › Article 3A - Voluntary Placement and Family Services › Section 32A-3A-8 - Voluntary placement; return of child to parent; department duty upon parent refusal to regain custody.

A. At any time, a parent or guardian may demand and obtain the return of a child voluntarily placed outside the home without seeking or obtaining court approval. The child shall be returned within forty-eight hours of when the written or verbal demand was made. However, before the expiration of the forty-eight-hour period, the department may prevent the immediate return of the child by filing a petition pursuant to the Family in Need of Court-Ordered Services Act [Chapter 32A, Article 3B NMSA 1978] or the Abuse and Neglect Act [Chapter 32A, Article 4 NMSA 1978] and proceeding under the applicable act.
B. If the parent or guardian of the child refuses to or cannot accept the child back into the parent's or guardian's custody, before the department files a petition alleging that the child is a neglected child or that the child's family needs court-ordered family services, the department shall:
(1) make reasonable efforts to place the child back in the custody of the parent or guardian and tailor the reasonable efforts to the facts and circumstances of the case and shall:
(a) document in writing the details demonstrating the quality and quantity of services and assistance provided to alleviate the causes and conditions leading to the parent or guardian's refusal or inability to accept the child back into the parent or guardian's custody, on the court record;
(b) assist the child's parent or guardian through the steps of a department case plan and with accessing or developing the resources necessary to satisfy the department case plan; and
(c) conduct a comprehensive assessment of the circumstances of the child's family with a goal of reunification;
(2) make reasonable efforts to maintain or reunite a child with the child's family by:
(a) identifying and establishing appropriate services and assisting the child's parent or guardian to overcome barriers to reunification, including assisting the parent or guardian in obtaining those services;
(b) conducting or causing to be conducted a diligent search for the child's extended family members and contacting and consulting with the child's extended family members and adult relatives to provide family structure and support for the child and the child's parent or guardian;
(c) offering and employing culturally appropriate family preservation strategies;
(d) taking steps to keep the child and the child's siblings together whenever possible; and
(e) identifying community resources, including housing, financial assistance, transportation, mental health services, health care, substance use prevention and treatment and peer support services, and assisting the child's parent or guardian; and
(3) record all efforts made toward reasonable efforts and report them to the court.
History:
1978 Comp., § 32A-3A-8, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 77, § 70; 2005, ch. 82, § 2; 2023, ch. 90, § 8.
ANNOTATIONS
The 2023 amendment,
effective July 1. 2023, revised the children, youth and families department's duties related to the return of a child voluntarily placed outside the home to the child's parent or guardian, and revised provisions related to a parent or guardian's refusal to regain custody of a child voluntarily placed outside the home; in the section heading, deleted "Duty to file a petition" and added "voluntary placement; return of child to parent; department duty upon parent refusal to regain custody"; added Subsection A; and in Subsection B, after "If", deleted "any child has remained in voluntary placement for longer than three hundred sixty-five days in any two-year period and", after "custody", deleted "the department shall immediately file" and added "before the department files", after "court-ordered family services", added "the department shall", and added Paragraphs B(1) through B(3).
The 2005 amendment,
effective April 4, 2005, extended the time of placement after which the department is required to file a petition.