Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 18 - HUMAN SERVICES › Part 7 - Division of Family & Children Services Licensing Requirements › Chapter 1 - Licensing Requirements Manual for Residential Child Caring and Child Placing Agencies › Section 18-7-1-XIX - APPENDIX › MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972

Current through June 25, 2024
Revised through 2003 Legislative
					 Session
SEC. 43-15-5. Administration of child welfare
					 services.
(1) The State
				  Department of Public Welfare shall have authority and it shall be its duty to
				  administer or supervise all public child welfare services, including those
				  services, responsibilities, duties and powers with which the county departments
				  of public welfare are charged and empowered in this chapter; administer and
				  supervise the licensing and inspection of all private child placing agencies;
				  provide for the care of dependent and neglected children in foster family homes
				  or in institutions, supervise the care of such children and those of
				  illegitimate birth; supervise the importation of children; and supervise the
				  operation of all state institutions for children. The State Department of
				  Public Welfare shall be authorized to purchase hospital and medical insurance
				  coverage for those children placed in foster care by the state or county
				  departments of public welfare who are not otherwise eligible for medical
				  assistance under the Mississippi Medicaid Law. The State Department of Public
				  Welfare shall be further authorized to purchase burial or life insurance not
				  exceeding One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00) for those children
				  placed in foster care by the state or county departments of public welfare. All
				  insurance coverage authorized herein may be purchased with any funds other than
				  state funds available to the State Department of Public Welfare, including
				  those funds available to the child which are administered by the
				  department.
(2) Any person,
				  partnership, group, corporation, organization or association desiring to
				  operate a child residential home, as defined in Section
				  43-16-3,
				  may make application for a license for such a facility to the State Department
				  of Public Welfare on the application forms furnished for this purpose by the
				  department. If an applicant meets the published rules and regulations of the
				  department regarding minimum standards for a child residential home, then the
				  applicant shall be granted a license by the department.
SEC. 43-15-6. Persons convicted of certain crimes not
					 to be licensed as foster parent or foster home.
No person convicted of a crime affecting children or any
					 other crime as set forth in Section
					 97-5-1,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to the abandonment of a child under age six
					 (6); Section
					 97-5-21,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to seduction of a child under age eighteen
					 (18); Section
					 97-5-23,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to the touching of a child for lustful
					 purposes; Section
					 97-5-35,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to the exploitation of children; Section
					 97-5-39,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to contributing to the neglect or
					 delinquency of a child and felonious battery of a child; Section
					 97-5-41,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to the carnal knowledge of a stepchild,
					 adopted child or child of a cohabiting partner; Section
					 97-3-95,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to sexual battery; Section
					 97-29-59,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to unnatural intercourse; Section
					 41-29-145,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to the distribution of controlled substances
					 to persons under age twenty-one (21); Section
					 97-3-19,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to murder and capital murder; Section
					 97-3-53,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to kidnapping; Section
					 97-3-65,
					 97-3-67 or
					 97-3-71,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to rape; Section
					 97-29-31,
					 Mississippi Code of 1972, relating to indecent exposure; or any other offense
					 committed in another jurisdiction which, if committed in this state, would be
					 deemed to be such a crime without regard to its designation elsewhere, shall be
					 licensed as a foster parent or a foster home by the Mississippi Department of
					 Public Welfare. The Department of Public Welfare is authorized to check any
					 public records available in the State of Mississippi for such criminal
					 information.
SEC. 43-15-21. Penalty for releasing confidential
					 information.
Anyone violating or releasing information of a confidential
					 nature without the approval of the court with jurisdiction or the state
					 department of public welfare upon being found guilty shall be guilty of a
					 misdemeanor and subject to a fine of no more than one thousand dollars
					 ($1,000.00) or imprisonment of six (6) months, or both.
SEC. 43-15-103. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(a) "Agency" means a residential child-caring
				  agency or a child-placing agency.
(b) "Child" or "children" mean(s) any
				  unmarried person or persons under the age of eighteen (18) years.
(c) "Child placing" means receiving,
				  accepting or providing custody or care for any child under eighteen (18) years
				  of age, temporarily or permanently, for the purpose of:
(i) Finding a person to adopt the
				  child;
(ii) Placing the child
				  temporarily or permanently in a home for adoption; or
(iii) Placing a child in a foster home or
				  residential child-caring agency.
(d) "Child-placing agency" means any entity
				  or person which places children in foster boarding homes or foster homes for
				  temporary care or for adoption or any other entity or person or group of
				  persons who are engaged in providing adoption studies or foster care studies or
				  placement services as defined by the rules of the department.
(e) "Department" means the Mississippi
				  Department of Human Services.
(f)
				  "Director" means the Director of the Division of Family and Children's
				  Services.
(g) "Division" means the
				  Division of Family and Children's Services within the Mississippi Department of
				  Human Services.
(h) "Family
				  boarding home" or "foster home" means a home (occupied residence) operated by
				  any entity or person which provides residential child care to at least one (1)
				  child but not more than six (6) children who are not related to the primary
				  caregivers.
(i) "Group care home"
				  means any place or facility operated by any entity or person which provides
				  residential child care for at least seven (7) children but not more than twelve
				  (12) children who are not related to the primary caregivers.
(j) "Licensee" means any person, agency or
				  entity licensed under this chapter.
(k) "Maternity home" means any place or
				  facility operated by any entity or person which receives, treats or cares for
				  more than one (1) child or adult who is pregnant out of wedlock, either before,
				  during or within two (2) weeks after childbirth; provided, that the licensed
				  child-placing agencies and licensed maternity homes may use a family boarding
				  home approved and supervised by the agency or home, as a part of their work,
				  for as many as three (3) children or adults who are pregnant out of wedlock,
				  and provided further, that the provisions of this definition shall not include
				  children or women who receive maternity care in the home of a person to whom
				  they are kin within the sixth degree of kindred computed according to civil
				  law, nor does it apply to any maternity care provided by general or special
				  hospitals licensed according to law and in which maternity treatment and care
				  are part of the medical services performed and the care of children is brief
				  and incidental.
(l) "Office" means
				  the Office of Licensing within the Division of Family and Children's Services
				  of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
(m) "Person associated with a licensee" means
				  an owner, director, member of the governing body, employee, provider of care
				  and volunteer of a human services licensee.
(n) "Related" means children, step-children,
				  grandchildren, step-grandchildren, siblings of the whole or half-blood,
				  step-siblings, nieces or nephews of the primary care provider.
(o) "Residential child care" means the
				  provision of supervision, and/or protection, and meeting the basic needs of a
				  child for twenty-four (24) hours per day, which may include services to
				  children in a residential setting where care, lodging, maintenance and
				  counseling or therapy for alcohol or controlled substance abuse or for any
				  other emotional disorder or mental illness is provided for children, whether
				  for compensation or not.
(p)
				  "Residential child-caring agency" means any place or facility operated by any
				  entity or person, public or private, providing residential child care,
				  regardless of whether operated for profit or whether a fee is charged. Such
				  residential child-caring agencies include, but are not limited to, maternity
				  homes, runaway shelters, group homes that are administered by an agency, and
				  emergency shelters that are not in private residence.