New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 8 - SOCIAL SERVICES
Chapter 10 - CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
Part 7 - PROTECTIVE SERVICES LEGAL
Section 8.10.7.18 - PERMANENCY HEARING REQUIREMENTS
Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
A. A permanency hearing shall be commenced within six months of the initial judicial review of a child's dispositional order or within 12 months from the date a child enters foster care, whichever occurs first.
B. If the court adopts a permanency plan of reunification at the permanency hearing, the court shall adopt a transition home plan for the child, and schedule a permanency review hearing within three months. If a child is reunified, the subsequent hearing may be vacated.
C. If the court adopts a permanency plan other than reunification at the permanency hearing, the court shall determine whether or not PSD has made reasonable efforts to identify and notify all grandparents, other relatives or fictive kin. The court shall also determine whether or not the department has made reasonable efforts to conduct home studies on any appropriate relatives or fictive kin interested in providing permanency for the child. If the court finds reasonable efforts have not been made to identify and locate relatives or fictive kin or to conduct home studies on relatives or fictive kin, the court shall schedule a permanency review hearing within 60 days to determine whether an appropriate relative or fictive kin placement has been made. If a relative or fictive kin placement is made, the subsequent hearing may be vacated.
D. The court shall hold permanency hearings every 12 months when a child is in the legal custody of PSD.
E. PSD shall provide the resource family of a child and any pre-adoptive parent(s), relative(s) or fictive kin providing care for the child with timely notice of permanency hearings and notice of their right to be heard in permanency hearings and permanency review hearings. The right to be heard does not confer the right to standing as a party to the case.
F. The children's court attorney shall ensure that PSD's report to the court for the permanency hearing documents that PSD has considered out-of state, as well as in-state permanent placements for the child.
G. If the child is in an out-of-state placement at the time of the permanency hearing, the children's court attorney shall request a finding that the out-of-state foster care placement continues to be appropriate and in the child's best interests.
