Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 18, September 16, 2024
(a) A child is a child
with special needs, subject to the limitations in (b) and (c) below, if the CP&P
Director or designee determines that the adoptive placement of that child is
significantly burdened or prevented as a result of:
1. The child's having a serious medical condition
that will require repeated or frequent hospitalization or treatment;
2. The child's living with any physical
disability, whether congenital or acquired by accident, injury, or disease, which
makes, or may be expected to make, a child totally or partially incapacitated for
education or for remunerative occupation;
3. The child's living with any substantial
disability, such as the loss or deformation of facial features, torso, or
extremities;
4. The child's having a
diagnosed emotional, mental health, or behavioral problem, psychiatric disorder,
serious intellectual incapacity, or brain damage that seriously affects the child's
ability to relate to his or her peers or authority figures, including, but not
limited to, a developmental disability;
5. The child is one of a group of three or more
siblings (including half-siblings) and the siblings are placed together, or the
child is one of two siblings (including half-siblings) one of whom meets the special
needs criteria, and it is considered most appropriate that the children be placed
together;
6. The child is 10 years old
or older;
7. The child belonging to an
ethnic or minority group for whom adoptive homes are not readily available, subject
to the limitations in (c) below. Information regarding availability of homes may be
obtained from the Department;
8. The
child's having suffered child abuse or neglect that resulted in out-of-home
placement by the Division;
9. The
child's meeting the medical or disability requirements for Supplemental Security
Income pursuant to
42 U.S.C. §
673(c); or
10. Any other condition of a specific child that
may be approved by the CP&P Director or designee.
(b) A child shall not be considered a child with
special needs unless the CP&P Director or designee determines that a reasonable,
but unsuccessful, effort has been made to place the child with appropriate adoptive
parents without providing adoption subsidy. Private adoption agencies shall bear the
burden of demonstrating to the satisfaction of the CP&P Director or designee
that a child placed by that adoption agency could not be placed with appropriate
adoptive parents without adoption subsidy.
1. A
child placed in an adoptive home prior to the Department being notified of a need
for adoption subsidy shall be presumed to have been placed without the need for such
assistance unless compelling evidence to the contrary is provided.
2. This subsection shall not apply to a child
determined to meet the medical and disability requirements to be eligible for
Supplemental Security Income under
42 U.S.C. §
673(c).
(c) The determination that homes are not readily
available for a minority or ethnic group or for members of a minority or ethnic
group within a specific age range shall be made by the CP&P Director or designee
and subject to continuous reevaluation based on the fluctuating availability of
adoptive homes.
