Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 12, March 26, 2025
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.
(h) within five days of an orientation
session, contact persons who have inquired about adoption, been invited to such
session, but failed to attend, invite them to another orientation session or,
if they are unable to attend a scheduled orientation session, offer an
individual orientation interview;
(i) develop a record for each person
inquiring about adoption which contains:
(1)
a dated record of the inquiry, whether received by mail, telephone or in
person;
(2) a dated copy of the
invitation to an orientation session;
(3) a dated copy of the written
acknowledgment of the inquiry; and
(4) a dated record of all further
communication, whether by letter, telephone or in person; and
(j) retain such record, if no
completed application is filed, for 12 months after the last
communication.
