New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 18 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Chapter II - Regulations of the Department of Social Services › Subchapter C - Social Services › Article 2 - Family and Children's Services › Part 421 - Standards of Practice for Adoption Services › Section 421.11 - First contact with prospective adoptive parents

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
Authorized agencies operating an adoption program
			   shall:
(a) have an adoption or home
			 finding unit which will accept public inquiries. Inquiries regarding adoption
			 received elsewhere in the agency shall be referred immediately to such
			 unit;
(b) respond to inquiries
			 regarding adoption within five business days of receipt of the inquiry and
			 offer an invitation to an individual or group orientation session, which shall
			 take place within 30 days of receipt of the inquiry;
(c) conduct such orientation sessions during
			 evening and other hours convenient to those invited;
(d) discuss the characteristics of the
			 children available for adoption, show
New York State's Waiting
			 Children
and explain its use at each such orientation
			 session;
(e) discuss the procedures
			 for application and adoption study and the availability of adoption
			 subsidies;
(f) offer an adoption
			 application form approved by the department at the conclusion of such
			 session;
(g) inform possible
			 adoptive parents of the following additional information at the orientation
			 session:
(1) that married persons can adopt
			 only as a couple with each partner participating, and that a married person who
			 is living separate and apart from his or her spouse pursuant to a legally
			 recognizable separation agreement or decree of separation or who has been
			 living separate and apart from his or her spouse for a period of three years or
			 more prior to the commencement of the adoption proceeding may also adopt a
			 child;
(2)
(i) that pursuant to section 424-a  of the Social Services Law, an
			 agency will inquire of the Office of Children and Family Services whether the
			 applicant and any other person over the age of 18 who resides in the home of
			 the applicant is the subject of an indicated child abuse or maltreatment report
			 and that pursuant to Federal law, where the applicant or other person over the
			 age of 18 who resides in the home of the applicant resided in another state at
			 any time during the five years preceding the application for approval as an
			 adoptive parent made in accordance with this Part, the agency will request
			 child abuse and maltreatment information maintained by the child abuse and
			 maltreatment registry from the applicable child welfare agency in each such
			 state of previous residence; and
(ii) that pursuant to section 495  of the Social Services Law, an agency
			 will inquire of the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special
			 Needs whether the applicant and any other person over the age of 18 who resides
			 in the home of the applicant is listed on the register of substantiated
			 category one cases of abuse or neglect maintained by the Justice Center for the
			 Protection of People with Special Needs.
(3) that as part of the application process,
			 each applicant to be an adoptive parent will be required to submit a sworn
			 statement including whether such applicant, to the best of the applicant's
			 knowledge, has ever been convicted of a crime in New York State or any other
			 jurisdiction and that the applicant and any other person over the age of 18 who
			 currently resides in the home of the applicant will be required to be
			 fingerprinted for the purpose of a criminal history record check performed by
			 the Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Federal Bureau of
			 Investigation and subject to the criminal history record check requirements set
			 forth in section 378-a (2)  of the Social
			 Services Law and section
			 421.27 
			 of this Part;
(4) that pursuant to
			 section 372-e  of the Social Services Law, an
			 applicant may apply for a fair hearing if an application is not acted upon by
			 the completion of an adoption home study within six months or if an application
			 is rejected; and
(5) that an
			 adopted person 18 years of age or older, or if the adopted person is deceased,
			 the adopted person's direct line descendants, or the lawful representative of
			 such adopted person or the lawful representative of such adopted person's
			 direct line descendants, as the case may be, has a right either to receive from
			 the commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, the commissioner
			 of Health and Mental Hygiene of the City of New York, the applicable local
			 registrar or any person so authorized by such commissioner or local registrar a
			 certified copy of the adopted person's original long form birth certificate,
			 including any change attached to that certificate by a biological parent or
			 parents and any information provided to such commissioner or local registrar in
			 accordance with state law or, where it is impossible for such commissioner or
			 local registrar to provide a copy of the original long form birth certificate
			 of a person adopted in this state and such certificate is not part of the
			 records of such commissioner or local registrar, to receive from an authorized
			 agency, as defined in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subdivision 10 of section 371  of the Social Services Law, identifying
			 information regarding the adopted person and the adopted person's biological
			 parents that would otherwise appear on an original long form birth certificate
			 in this state. The adoptive person 18 years of age or older may also be
			 informed of the Adoption Information Registry and the Mutual Consent Voluntary
			 Adoption Registry pursuant to sections 4138-c and 4138-d  of the Public Health
			 Law where the adoptive person, the biological siblings or the birth parents of
			 the adoptive person may register with either registry to obtain more
			 information about the adoption.