2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 1 - Division of Public Welfare (§§ 1 — 28) › § 10 - Division of Public Welfare—Functions

Except as otherwise provided by law, the Division, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Family, shall discharge the public welfare functions in Puerto Rico. The Division shall have the following functions and duties:
(a) Rules and regulations.— To establish and enforce such rules as it may be necessary or desirable to carry out the provisions of §§ 1–26 of this title.
(b) Cooperation with federal government.— To cooperate with the federal government to effectuate the purposes of any public assistance or public welfare program and in all such other matters of mutual concern, including the adoption of such rules, regulations and methods of administration, as are found by the federal government to be necessary for the proper and efficient operation of plans for public assistance and social welfare services.
(c) Administration of public assistance.— To provide public assistance to needy persons, including the aged, needy children, the blind, totally and permanently disabled persons, and other persons who are unable to earn their livelihood. Public assistance provided for under the provisions of §§ 1–26 of this title, which is not classified as old-age assistance, aid to the blind, aid to needy children or assistance to totally or permanently disabled persons, shall be designated as general assistance.
(d)
(1) Child public welfare service.— To establish, develop, and strengthen child welfare services and further adequate methods for the organization thereof; to receive children for placing them in foster homes or in institutions; to license and manage all institutions or agencies maintained for the care of children by individuals, associations, corporations or municipalities; to review and approve all proposed plans for new buildings for the care of children, and to provide such other services for children as are defined in §§ 1–26 of this title or entrusted to the Division by other laws. The provisions of Act No. 28 of June 8, 1948 shall not be applicable to cases in which it becomes necessary to pay to foster parents for the services rendered to the children, as well as for the food, and clothes and other expenses which they may incur when taking care thereof; Provided, That in the case of two or more homes in like manner desirable for a child, that one in which the head of family is not affected by the provisions of Act No. 28 of June 8, 1948 shall be preferred. The effects of this latter provision shall be made retroactive to the date of the taking effect of the Public Welfare Act.
(2) To accept dependent or neglected children committed to its custody by the Court of First Instance. It may also accept from parents or relatives such children as, after due investigation, are found to need its care. Children so received shall be under the supervision of the Division, and shall be placed in foster homes, including boarding homes, free homes and adoptive homes, or in one of the Commonwealth homes for children. The Division shall retain the custody and supervision of each child received, until the child is returned to his/her parents or either of them, is returned to his/her relatives, is discharged as no longer in need of assistance, is adopted, or is committed by a court division of competent jurisdiction to other custody or supervision. It shall also be the duty of the Division to provide social services to the family of the child placed in its custody, in order to secure the return of the child to his/her own home as soon as possible.
(3) To accept the custody and guardianship of minors to the adoption of whom the parents or guardians consent. The parents or guardians wishing to consent to the adoption of a minor may resort to the Division for the purpose of waiving the patria potestas or guardianship of said minor and transferring, subject to acceptance by the Division, the minor’s custody and guardianship to the Director, who may, in turn, consent to the adoption of the minor by another person. The Division shall not be under obligation to accept the adoption or guardianship of the minor or to entrust his/her adoption to another person if, in its judgment, circumstances do not so justify. In this latter case the Director shall exercise the custody and guardianship and shall be responsible for the care and welfare of the child until he shall attain legal age or until his/her emancipation.
Once a child has reached legal age, he may choose between withdrawing from, or remaining under, the custody or guardianship of the Director until he attains the age of twenty-one, through an agreement by both parties.
The Director of Public Welfare may place children whose custody and guardianship have been transferred to him/her, with families residing outside of Puerto Rico, for adoption. Action to place these children with families residing outside of Puerto Rico shall be taken through the Department of Public Welfare of the place where the family resides or through adoption agencies duly authorized to act as such. The adoption procedure shall be transacted at the place of residence of the prospective adoptive parents. The Division of Public Welfare shall retain the custody and guardianship over these children until the adoption is completed, and the agency which processes the adoption outside of Puerto Rico shall act under a special power of attorney to consent to such adoption, issued by the Director of Public Welfare of the Department of the Family.
Waiver of the patria potestas and of the guardianship to which this subsection refers shall be made through a sworn written petition which shall be presented to the Court of First Instance fee free. In said petition shall appear the Director and the minor’s parents, or, in the proper case, the guardian, and in the proceedings in court the norms and principles prescribed for the adoption shall be applied. The Director may delegate to a local representative the appearance before the court for the purpose of accepting the custody and vesting same in the adoptive father.
If the minor’s parents are in Puerto Rico and they are competent, they shall appear in person, and if they are outside of Puerto Rico, or are unable to appear in person, they shall appear by special proxy.
In the cases to which this subsection refers the Director shall act as guardian of the minor for all legal purposes.
(4) To bring actions to deprive parents of the patria potestas in the cases mentioned in § 634 of Title 31; and to deprive of the custody of minors and incapacitated persons, parents and any other person having same, in the same cases mentioned in § 634 of Title 31 for depriving parents of the patria potestas.
This action shall be brought through a sworn written petition of the Director or his/her representative filed before the Court of First Instance fee free. Wherever it should become necessary to notify an interested party through edicts, the norms and principles which govern adoption cases as prescribed by § 613A of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1933 shall apply. Likewise, the norms and principles established in § 613D of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1933 shall apply to the proceedings and processing of these cases before the court. A copy of the petition shall be served, for proper action, on the prosecutor, who shall make an independent investigation of the facts alleged in the petition and shall appear at the hearing in defense of the best interests of the minor.
If the petition is granted, the court shall place the minor under the custody and tutorship of the Director, unless the circumstances of the case require that it remain under the patria potestas or custody of one of the parents, or that it be placed under the custody or tutorship of one of the relatives provided by law, if the welfare or the best interests of the minor so justify.
(e) Institutions.— To be responsible for the care and supervision of children placed in the Commonwealth homes for children and in the Institute for Blind Children, or in any other such institution already established which may be transferred to the Division, or hereafter established by the government. To this end, the Division shall be responsible for the organization of services, personnel, and internal administration of the aforesaid institutions.
(f) Social Service Index.— To coordinate public and private services for needy persons through the preparation of a Social Service Index. To this end the Division shall organize a Commonwealth system of confidential interchange with existing agencies, and shall further the use of such interchange by public and private agencies providing social services in the Commonwealth.
(g) Research and statistics.— To conduct research and compile statistics relating to public welfare.
(h) Publications.— To prepare and publish bulletins and other educational or informational material on the various aspects of public welfare.
(i) Annual and other reports.— To prepare an annual report of its activities and expenditures and such other reports as the federal or Commonwealth Government may from time to time require, complying with such requirements as they may deem necessary to insure the correctness and authenticity of such reports.
(j) To assume any other duties specified by §§ 1–26 of this title or any other Act.
History —May 12, 1943, No. 95, p. 236, § 10; May 7, 1948, No. 106, p. 246, § 1; June 15, 1953, No. 83, p. 292, § 1; June 9, 1956, No. 29, p. 86; June 18, 1959, No. 50, p. 149, § 1; June 19, 1959, No. 57, p. 164, § 1; June 6, 1960, No. 67, p. 115; June 25, 1962, No. 102; July 20, 1979, No. 117, p. 283; May 4, 2012, No. 80, § 2.