Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 24, December 18, 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.
