Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 110 CMR - DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES › Title 110 CMR 7.000 - Services › Substitute Care › Section 7.106B - Department Employees as Foster/Pre-adoptive Parents

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
(1) Encouraging individuals to become foster
				or pre-adoptive families is a critical Department priority. The Department
				shall therefore support its own employees who wish to become foster or
				pre-adoptive parents by providing opportunities for them to do so.
(2) Upon written request to and written
				approval by the Deputy Commissioner for Field Operations, a Department employee
				may be referred to a private agency for foster/pre-adoptive parent purposes
				through an existing Department contract, to obtain a foster/pre-adoptive parent
				home study and/or monitor the home if approved. The Deputy Commissioner may
				also choose to refer the Department employee to a Department area office or
				regional office where the employee does not currently work, nor has previously
				worked, to obtain a foster/pre-adoptive parent home study and/or to monitor the
				home if approved.
(3) Prior to the
				placement of a child in Department care or custody in a Department employee's
				home, including a Department special state employee, the Department employee
				must file with the State Ethics Commission a disclosure of financial interest
				on a form prescribed by the Ethics Commission.
(4) Prior to the initiation of contact for
				the purposes of placement, or prior to the placement of a child in the care or
				custody of the Department with a Department employee, or a Department special
				state employee, a committee consisting of the Deputy Commissioner for Field
				Operations, the General Counsel and the Assistant Commissioner for Foster Care,
				Adoption and Adolescent Services, must grant written approval of the
				placement.
(5)
(a) A child in the care or custody of the
				Department and whose case is managed by the Department may be placed in a
				Department employee's home (approved and supervised by a private agency or by a
				Department area office or regional office where the employee does not currently
				work, nor has previously worked) unless the child is from the employee's own
				area if the employee works in an area office or the employee's region if the
				employee works in a regional office. For the purpose of this regulation
				Department legal staff is deemed regional employees. For employees in the
				Department's Central Office, placements will be limited based on the employee's
				area of responsibility and oversight.
(b) The Department may permit a placement
				that would not be permitted under 110 CMR 7.106B(5)(a) under the following
				circumstances:
1. A voluntary or involuntary
				termination of parental rights has issued, there are no available kin willing
				and able to care for the child and it is in the child's best interest to be
				placed with the Department employee;
2. The Department employee is a kin of the
				child to be placed and it is in the child's best interest to be placed with the
				Department employee;
3. The child's
				parent or the child has identified the Department employee as a potential
				placement, the child's parents do not object to the placement, and it is in the
				child's best interest to be placed with the Department employee.
(c) In any case in which an
				exception is granted under 110 CMR 7.106B(5)(b), the parent's and child's
				Department clinical and adoption case will be transferred to another Department
				area office or to a contracted agency.
Commentary
: If a department employee
				  is a kin of the child, a placement may occur on an emergency basis in
				  accordance with
				  110 CMR
				  7.108(1)  as long as 110 CMR
				  7.106B(3) and (4) are complied with prior to placement.