CHILD WELFARE MANUAL

Section 6, Chapter 10 (CD Employees As foster Or Adoptive Parents), Subsection 2, – (Adoption)

10.2   Adoption

Children’s Division (CD) employees who want to adopt a child must be approved by a child placing agency or adoption intermediary other than CD.  If the employee utilizes an agency with which CD contracts and intends to adopt a child in CD custody, the Division will pay for the cost of the adoptive study.

CD employees may adopt a child in the custody of the Division as long as:

  1. Custody is transferred to the adoptive parent or another child placing agency when the child is placed in the home; and
  2. Someone other than CD provides supervision; or
  3. The Regional Director may assign a neighboring county as a measure of last resort should there be no one outside of CD available to provide supervision.

When a CD employee is being considered for the adoption of a child in CD custody, and the CD employee is from a different county than the available child’s case manager county, the staffing process may remain the same.

CD employees may not adopt a child from their county or circuit of employment unless recruitment for that child has been unsuccessful for a period of 90 days and the recruitment efforts must be documented.   The 90 days will begin when the recruitment efforts have been initiated. Recruitment efforts must be clearly documented.

If the employee is from the same county as the available child, the child’s adoption staffing is to take place in a county other than the county where the employee is based, (i.e., neighboring county).

    1. In the situations where the child and employee are from the same county, the case manager county is to contact their Regional Office representative to request assistance in assigning the staffing to an alternative county.
    2. The alternative county that has been assigned to conduct the staffing is to follow the procedures set forth previously in this manual.
    3. In addition to conducting the staffing, the selection committee in the assigned county will ultimately be responsible for making the recommendation of the family that the team selects. 

The child’s case manager and their supervisor are mandatory members of the selection committee and therefore must be a part of this committee.  They are only to provide information about the child and to answer any questions that may arise.  The child’s case manager and their supervisor will abstain from participating in the recommendation of a family for a child.

    4. If a child under the supervision of CD is placed in the physical custody of an  employee, the home study process, case management, and supervision of the case shall be addressed in the order outlined below:  

a.   The case shall be assigned to a neighboring county or a neighboring office if this occurs in a metro area, for conducting the home study and on-going case management and supervision of the case.

b.   The case may be referred through the Foster Care Case Management contract and count in the rotation as a new entry into care. 

c.   A child/family specific contract may be developed with a child placing agency. Should there be a need to enter into a child/family specific contract with a child placing agency, refer the matter to the Contract Management Unit.

     5.   Once the child’s adoption has been finalized, the Regional Office will assign a neighboring county to the employee, in order to provide case management services, related to adoption subsidy, to the employee.  The assigned county will be responsible for requests throughout the duration of the subsidy.

Memoranda History:

CD09-72