2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 26 - Interstate Compact on Placement of Children (§§ 549 — 549g) › § 549 - Adoption

The Government of Puerto Rico is most interested in accepting and adopting, as the present legislation provides, the clauses and conditions established in the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, which read[s] as follows:
(1) Purpose and public policy.— The purpose and public policy of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) is to establish the collaborative agreements and mechanisms between Puerto Rico, the states and the territories of the American Nation for the interstate placement of children to the end that:
(a) Any child requiring placement in another state or territory of the United States may have the maximum opportunity to be placed in a stable, safe and suitable environment with persons or at institutions duly licensed by the government and who meet the requirements and contain the facilities needed to provide the child with the necessary care.
(b) The authorities designated in any receiving state, or anywhere a child is placed, may have the opportunity to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the proposed placement so as to ensure full compliance with the necessary requirements for the protection of the child.
(c) The agency sending the child may ascertain the proposed placement after having obtained thorough information before placement.
(d) The entities involved may work in coordination to ensure that the jurisdictional transfer be the most adequate for the proper care of the child.
(2) Definitions.— For the purposes of this chapter the following terms and phrases shall have the meaning expressed below:
(a) Child.— Shall mean any person who because of his/her minority is legally under the authority of the parents, guardians or persons in charge.
(b) Sending agency.— Shall mean, in those states or territories participants in the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, said state or territory, the officials or employees thereof; a sending agency or a subdivision of said state or territory, the officials or employees thereof; a court, a natural or juridical person, an association, a charitable agency or any other entity sending or bringing any child or causing any child to be sent or brought to another state or territory participant in the Compact.
(c) Receiving state.— Shall mean the state or territory receiving the child who proceeds from another state or territory participant in the Compact, be it through the public authorities or through private persons or agencies.
(d) Placement.— Shall mean the arrangements made for the care of a child in a foster or adoptive home or the home of relatives, or in an agency, children’s care center or institution. This term does not include institutions for the mentally ill or epileptics, any hospitals or other health care establishments, or institutions primarily devoted to education.
(3)
(a) Conditions for placement.— The sending agency may not transfer or place, nor cause the transfer or placement of a child candidate for foster care or adoption, to another jurisdiction until it meets the requirements established in this section and the laws applicable to the agency of the receiving state for placing a child.
(b) The sending agency shall inform and coordinate with the pertinent authorities of the receiving state, through a written application, its intention to transfer or place a child. Said application shall contain the following information:
(i) The name, age and date and place of birth of the child;
(ii) the identity and address of the parents or legal guardians;
(iii) the name and address of the person, agency or institution to where the sending agency intends to transfer or place the child;
(iv) the reasons for the proposed action and evidence of the authority under which it intends to conduct the placement.
(c) Any authorized official or agency in the receiving state that receives the application mentioned in clause (b) of this subsection may require and shall be authorized to receive additional information deemed necessary to achieve the goals and policies of the Compact.
(d) The child may not be transferred or placed, or made to be transferred or placed in the receiving state until the pertinent authorities in the receiving state inform in writing that the proposed placement is not contrary to the welfare and best interests of the child.
(4) Penalties for illegal placements.— Violation of the terms of this Compact shall constitute a violation of the laws governing the placement of children in the sending state and the receiving state. This violation may be punished or subject to penalties in any of the jurisdictions according to the established laws and shall constitute enough grounds to suspend or revoke any license, permit or other legal authorization of the sending agency authorized to place or care for children.
(5)
(a) Retention of jurisdiction.— The sending state shall maintain jurisdiction over the child so as to determine all matters related to the custody, supervision, care, treatment and decisions bearing on the child as if the latter had remained in its jurisdiction, until the child is adopted, reaches legal age, becomes self-sufficient or is returned to his/her original jurisdiction, with the consent of the corresponding authority in the receiving state. Said jurisdiction shall also include the power to carry out or effect the return of the child, or his/her transfer to another place and his/her custody according to the law. The sending agency shall continue to bear financial responsibility for the support of the child during the placement period. Nothing contained in the Compact shall hinder the receiving state from claiming jurisdiction so as to handle any criminal act committed by the child within its jurisdiction.
(b) Should the sending agency be a public agency, it may enter into service agreements with authorized public or private agencies in the receiving state so as to offer one or more services to the child.
(c) The matters agreed to shall not be construed as to hinder a charitable agency authorized to place children in a receiving state from providing services or from acting as agent in that state for a charitable agency from the sending state, nor as to hinder the agency in the receiving state from discharging its financial responsibility for the support and maintenance of the child who has been placed on behalf of the sending state without waiving the responsibility established in clause (a) of this subsection.
(6) Institutional care for delinquent children.— A delinquent child may be placed in an institution in the jurisdiction of a party state according to the terms of the Compact, but said placements shall not be carried out unless a hearing is held in a competent court and the father, mother or tutor is given the opportunity to be heard before the child is sent to the jurisdiction of another party state for his/her institutional care and the court determines that:
(a) There are no equivalent facilities available in the jurisdiction of the sending agency, and
(b) the institutional care provided in the other jurisdiction is for the best interests of the child and shall create no onerous burden whatsoever.
(7) Compact administrator.— The government of each jurisdiction shall appoint an official who shall be the General Coordinator of the activities of the Compact in Puerto Rico and who, acting in coordination with other similar officials in other jurisdictions, shall be empowered to recommend the promulgation of rules and regulations, as well as to enter into agreements with organizations so as to more effectively fulfill the terms and provisions of this Compact.
(8) Limitations.— The Compact shall not apply:
(a) When a child is transferred or placed in the receiving state by his/her parents, step-parents, grandparents, adult brothers or sisters, adult aunts or uncles or tutor and said child is left with any of said relatives or tutor in the receiving state.
(b) When any transfer or placement of a child in a receiving state is made according to any other interstate compact to which both states, to wit, the sending state and the receiving state of the child[,] are signatories, or when said transfer or placement is made through any other legal agreement between both states.
(9) Enactment and withdrawal.— Any state or territory of the United States of America, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with the prior consent of the Congress, as well as the Government of Canada or any of its provinces, may participate in the present Compact. Said Compact shall become effective in relation to any of these jurisdictions when legislation to that effect is approved in the various states. In order to revoke said Compact it shall be necessary to promulgate legislation to make it ineffective but said legislation shall not become effective until two (2) years after its date of effectiveness and until a written withdrawal notice is sent by the state wishing to withdraw to the governor of every state participating in the Compact. The withdrawal of a party state shall not affect the rights, duties and obligations of any sending agency participating in this Compact with relation to placements made before the date of effectiveness of the withdrawal.
(10) Construction and severability.— The provisions of this Compact shall be construed liberally so as to fulfill its purposes. Should any phrase, clause, sentence or provision of this Compact be found unconstitutional by any party state or territory, or by the United States, the validity of the rest of this Compact and its applicability to any government, agency, person or circumstance, shall not be impaired. The Compact shall remain in effect in relation to the remaining states and territories; and in relation to the state or territory affected, all remaining parts of the Compact shall remain in full force and effect. At the time of placement of a child, the Department of the Family shall give priority to a culturally compatible family that meets equal conditions and that speaks the same language of the child.
History —Oct. 10, 2000, No. 417, § 1.