2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 23B - Comprehensive Child Wellbeing and Protection Act (§§ 444 — 450m) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§§ 444 — 444j) › § 444c - Responsibilities and coordination with other agencies

To guarantee faithful compliance with the public policy set forth in this chapter, the agencies and municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall give priority to any situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect of which they become aware. The Department of the Family, the Department of Education, the Department of Health, the Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration, the Department of Housing, the Department of Justice, the Puerto Rico Police, [the Puerto Rico Broadcasting Corporation], the Corrections Administration, and the Administration of Juvenile Institutions shall be under the obligation [with the urgency and sensitivity merited by each case] to give priority to attending to situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect. They shall coordinate their efforts when services are needed in connection with the identification, prevention, or treatment of minors who are victims of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
Agency coordination shall include joint planning, public education and information services, the use of each other’s facilities, joint training and activities for personnel development, and evaluation and handling of cases. Agencies and municipalities shall ensure that the services that have been delegated for their rendering onto privatized entities or providers offer immediate attention to situation where there is abuse.
The agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico must:
(1) Identify and report situations where abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect exists or is suspected to exist so that they may be investigated as provided for in this chapter.
(2) Provide protection to minors in emergency situations including transportation, coordination of medical services, emergency custody, and any other service needed until the Department of the Family intervenes.
(3) Support the victims of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(4) Support minors in potentially traumatic situations.
(5) Protect the civil rights, privacy, and integrity of minors.
(6) Coordinate services for abused minors with government and nongovernmental agencies.
(7) Develop and implement prevention programs for parents and children throughout Puerto Rico.
(8) Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams dealing with cases of abuse.
(9) Adopt orientation, training and prevention programs on abuse and/or institutional abuse for the personnel of their agencies or municipalities, in addition to the scopes and implementation of this chapter.
(10) Design, develop, and implement an intervention protocol for situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect aimed at attending to abused children, abusers, and victims of domestic violence. Services offered to abused children, abusers, and victims of domestic violence shall be rendered in a manner so as to guarantee the safety of victims and of the assistance professionals handling these situations.
The Department and the agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall draft and adopt the regulations and collaborative agreements needed to implement this chapter, as provided below:
(a) Department of Education.—
(1) Develop school policies and protocols to report situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(2) Participate in evaluations and provide support and follow-up services in situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(3) Intervene and provide services related to situations of neglect of school children.
(4) Provide help to parents through school-sponsored programs, pursuant to the obligations and duties provided for in the Department of Education Organic Act, §§ 143a–146e of Title 3.
(5) Facilitate and guarantee school placement and transportation for minors under the custody of the Department, within a term not to exceed seventy-two (72) hours, so as not to interrupt the school services of the minors. In the case of children with disabilities, whose emergency placement in a school requires the continuation of a specially designed school program, the school director, the special education teacher who will provide the service, and the school social worker shall meet and coordinate the placement of the minor within the period stipulated in this section. To that end, all public or private schools shall maintain an updated directory or catalog of specialized resources and facilities to facilitate and expedite the placement of the minor with disabilities.
(6) Provide advice and expertise regarding situations of institutional abuse and/or institutional neglect in educational institutions.
(7) Facilitate the investigation of referrals of institutional abuse and institutional neglect. The school social worker who attends to abuse cases referred by teachers shall maintain periodic communication with the social workers of the Department of the Family in order to participate actively in the intervention protocol that has been designed for the referred minor, as well as for his or her family, including the abuser.
(8) Petition for protective orders on behalf of minors.
(b) Department of Health.—
(1) Provide diagnosis and medical treatment services to abused minors and their families.
(2) Provide advice and consulting services to the Department on medical aspects of the abuse, upon request.
(3) Provide expert testimony, certifications, or written reports in court actions, when required to do so.
(4) Identify and provide support to families at risk of suffering abuse.
(5) Provide training for medical and nonmedical professionals on medical aspects of child abuse.
(6) Provide evaluation and priority medical attention to minors in the custody of the Department, subject to the protocols established by the Department of Health.
(7) Guarantee health services to the minors under the protection of the Department, regardless of where they have been placed.
(8) Establish service programs for abused children with special health needs.
(9) Provide advice and expertise in situations of institutional abuse and/or institutional neglect in educational institutions.
(10) Facilitate the investigation of abuse, institutional abuse, and/or institutional neglect referrals.
(11) Ensure that the providers or privatizing entities of mental health services and facilities give immediate attention to situations involving abuse, as well as medications, and that they fulfill the obligations of the Department of Health imposed herein.
(c) Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration.—
(1) Provide care and integrated and effective residential or outpatient treatment to abused minors in matters related to mental health or addiction conditions. In the case of residential treatment, admission shall be subject to the determination of its clinical team after an evaluation process.
(2) Provide mental health and/or addiction services to parents or to the persons responsible for a minor who commit abuse, as part of the process of reeducation and other reasonable efforts.
(3) Coordinate the services provided for addiction and mental health with the Service Plan of the Department.
(4) Develop cooperation agreements with the government entities bound by this chapter to provide mental health and addiction services to the minors, parents or persons responsible for a minor who have incurred abusive behavior.
(5) Provide expert testimony, certifications, and written reports in court actions, when required to do so.
(6) Provide advice and expertise regarding situations of institutional abuse and/or institutional neglect in healthcare institutions.
(7) Facilitate the investigation of institutional abuse and institutional neglect referrals.
(8) Ensure that the providers or privatizing entities of mental health services and facilities give immediate attention to situations involving abuse, and that they fulfill the obligations of the Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration imposed herein.
(d) Department of Housing.—
(1) Give priority attention, as a protective measure, to applications involving a situation of abuse when the minors are under the custody of the Department; and the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor is able to furnish evidence of compliance with the Service Plan, subject to applicable federal regulations.
(2) Give priority attention, as a protective measure, to applications involving situations where both domestic violence and child abuse are present, subject to applicable federal regulations.
(3) Identify temporary homes for use in emergency situations in which placement is difficult, subject to applicable federal regulations.
(4) Amend the rental agreement when the same is in under the abuser’s name to make it possible for the minor to continue to live at home, subject to applicable federal regulations.
(5) Ensure that the administrative personnel of housing facilities gives priority attention to situations involving abuse and fulfill the obligations of the Department of Housing imposed herein.
(e) Puerto Rico Police.—
(1) Receive and investigate complaints of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(2) Assist and collaborate with the personnel of the Department when their safety is at risk, and they so request.
(3) Cooperate actively with the Department in any affirmative action aimed at assuming the custody of a minor and carrying out other services related to the protection of minors.
(4) Appear at judicial hearings to testify about investigation procedures in cases of abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(5) Keep a record of the restraining orders issued under this chapter.
(f) Corrections Administration.—
(1) Keep a register of participants of the system accused of incidents of abuse.
(2) Inform the Department and the person in charge of a minor of the release, passes granted, probation, and parole of an abusing parent, as a protective measure for minors.
(3) Provide educational programs to abusing parents aimed at reeducating them.
(4) Establish, administer, and operate reeducation and retraining programs for persons convicted of abuse or offenders.
(g) Administration of Juvenile Institutions.—
(1) Identify and refer to the Department of the Family, the Department of Justice, and the Puerto Rico Police, cases of institutional abuse and institutional neglect by personnel of the Administration of Juvenile Institutions.
(2) When incidents involving minors occur that may constitute offenses, the investigations must include a presumption of institutional neglect.
(3) Ensure that the civil rights of minors are protected.
(4) Keep a register of cases of institutional abuse and/or institutional neglect.
(5) Facilitate the investigation of referrals of institutional abuse and institutional neglect.
(6) Keep a register of [abusive minor parents].
(7) Inform the Department of services provided and the progress observed in the minor.
(8) Inform the Department and the person in charge of a minor about the release or temporary or extended passes granted to an abusing parent, as a protective measure for the abused minor.
(9) Provide educational programs to abusive parents aimed at reeducating them.
(h) Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation.—
(1) Collaborate with the Department of the Family, subject to the provisions of §§ 501–513 of Title 27, in the development and broadcasting of the child abuse and neglect television program referred to in § 445 of this title.
History —Aug. 1, 2003, No. 177, § 6; Sept. 16, 2004, No. 354, § 1; Sept. 29, 2004, No. 510, § 2.