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Article I.Purpose and Policy
It is the purpose of the party state to cooperate
with each other in the interstate placement of children to the end
that:
(a) Each child requiring placement shall receive
the maximum opportunity to be placed in a suitable environment and
with persons or institutions having appropriate qualifications and
facilities to provide a necessary and desirable degree and type of
care.
(b) The appropriate authorities in a state where a child is to be
placed may have full opportunity to ascertain the circumstances of
the proposed placement, thereby promoting full compliance with
applicable requirements for the protection of the child.
(c) The proper authorities of the state from which the placement
is made may obtain the most complete information on the basis of
which to evaluate a projected placement before it is made.
(d) Appropriate jurisdictional arrangements for the care of
children will be promoted.
Article II. Definitions
As used in this compact:
(a) “Child” means a person, who by reason of
minority, is legally subject to parental guardianship or similar
control.
(b) “Sending agency” means a party state,
officer or employee thereof; a subdivision of a party state, or
officer or employee thereof; a court of a party state; a person,
corporation, association, charitable agency or other entity which
sends, brings, or causes to be sent or brought any child to another
party state.
(c) “Receiving state” means the state to
which a child is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought,
whether by public authorities or private persons or agencies, and
whether for placement with state or local public authorities or for
placement with private agencies or persons.
(d) “Placement” means the arrangement for the
care of a child in a family free or boarding home or in a
child-caring agency or institution but does not include any
institution caring for the mentally ill, mentally defective or
epileptic or any institution primarily educational in character, and
any hospital or other medical facility.
Article III. Conditions for
Placement
(a) No sending agency shall send,
bring, or cause to be sent or brought into any other party state any
child for placement in foster care or as a preliminary to a possible
adoption unless the sending agency shall comply with each and every
requirement set forth in this article and with the applicable laws
of the receiving state governing the placement of children therein.
(b) Prior to sending, bringing or causing any
child to be sent or brought into a receiving state for placement in
foster care or as a preliminary to a possible adoption, the sending
agency shall furnish the appropriate public authorities in the
receiving state written notice of the intention to send, bring, or
place the child in the receiving state. The notice shall contain:
(1) The name, date and
place of birth of the child.
(2) The identity and
address or addresses of the parents or legal guardian.
(3) The name and address
of the person, agency or institution to or with which the sending
agency proposes to send, bring, or place the child.
(4) A full statement of
the reasons for such proposed action and evidence of the authority
pursuant to which the placement is proposed to be made.
(c) Any public officer or agency in a receiving
state which is in receipt of a notice pursuant to paragraph (b) of
this article may request of the sending agency, or any other
appropriate officer or agency of or in the sending state, and shall
be entitled to receive therefrom, such supporting or additional
information as it may deem necessary under the circumstances to
carry out the purpose and policy of this compact.
(d) The child shall not be sent, brought,
or caused to be sent or brought into the receiving state until the
appropriate public authorities in the receiving state shall notify
the sending agency, in writing, to the effect that the proposed
placement does not appear to be contrary to the interests of the
child. Article IV. Penalty for Illegal Placement The sending,
bringing, or causing to be sent or brought into any receiving state
of a child in violation of the terms of this compact, shall
constitute a violation of the laws respecting the placement of
children of both the state in which the sending agency is located or
from which it sends or brings the child and of the receiving state.
Such violation may be punished or subjected to penalty in either
jurisdiction in accordance with its laws. In addition to liability
for any such punishment or penalty, any such violation shall
constitute full and sufficient grounds for the suspension or
revocation of any license, permit, or other legal authorization held
by the sending agency which empowers or allows it to place, or care,
for children.
Article V. Retention of
Jurisdiction
(a) The sending agency shall
retain jurisdiction over the child sufficient to determine all
matters in relation to the custody, supervision, care, and
disposition of the child which it would have had if the child had
remained in the sending agency’s state, until the child is
adopted, reaches majority, becomes self-supporting or is discharged
with the concurrence of the appropriate authority in the receiving
state. Such jurisdiction shall also include the power to effect or
cause the return of the child or its transfer to another location
and custody pursuant to law. The sending agency shall continue to
have financial responsibility for support and maintenance of the
child during the period of the placement. Nothing contained herein
shall defeat a claim of jurisdiction by a receiving state sufficient
to deal with an act of delinquency or crime committed therein.
(b) When the sending agency is a public agency,
it may enter into an agreement with an authorized public or private
agency in the receiving state providing for the performance of one
or more services in respect of such case by the latter as agent for
the sending agency.
(c) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to
prevent a private charitable agency authorized to place children in
the receiving state from performing services or acting as agents in
that state for a private charitable agency of the sending state; nor
to prevent the agency in the receiving state from discharging
financial responsibility for the support and maintenance of a child
who has been placed on behalf of the sending agency without
relieving the responsibility set forth in paragraph (a) hereof.
Article VI. Institutional Care of Delinquent
Children
A child adjudicated delinquent may be placed in an
institution in another party jurisdiction pursuant to this compact
but no such placement shall be made unless the child is given a
court hearing on notice to the parent or guardian with opportunity
to be heard prior to his being sent to such other party jurisdiction
for institutional care and the court finds that:
1. Equivalent facilities for the child are not
available in the sending agency’s jurisdiction; and
2. Institutional care in the other jurisdiction
is in the best interest of the child and will not produce undue
hardship.
Article VII. Compact Administrator
The executive head of each jurisdiction party to
this compact shall designate an officer who shall be general
coordinator of activities under this compact in his jurisdiction and
who, acting jointly with like officers of other party jurisdictions,
shall have power to promulgate rules and regulations to carry out
more effectively the terms and provisions of this compact.
Article VIII. Limitations
This compact shall not apply to:
(a) The sending or bringing of a child into a
receiving state by his parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult
brother or sister, adult uncle or aunt, or his guardian and leaving
the child with any such relative or non-agency guardian in the
receiving state.
(b) Any placement, sending or bringing of a child
into a receiving state pursuant to any other interstate compact to
which both the state from which the child is sent or brought and the
receiving state are party, or to any other agreement between said
states which has the force of law.
Article IX. Enactment and Withdrawal
This compact shall be open to joinder by any state,
territory or possession of the United States, the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and, with the consent of
Congress, the Government of Canada or any province thereof. It shall
become effective with respect to any such jurisdiction when such
jurisdiction has enacted the same into law. Withdrawal from this
compact shall be by the enactment of a statute repealing the same,
but shall not take effect until two years after the effective date
of such statute and until written notice of the withdrawal has been
given by the withdrawing state to the Governor of each other party
jurisdiction. Withdrawal of a party state shall not affect the
rights, duties and obligations under this compact of any sending
agency therein with respect to a placement made prior to the
effective date of withdrawal.
Article X. Construction and Severability
The provisions of this compact shall be liberally
construed to effectuate the purposes thereof. The provisions of this
compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence or
provision of this compact is declared to be contrary to the
constitution of any party state or of the United States or the
applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or
circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this
compact and the applicability thereof to any government, agency,
person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. If this
compact shall be held contrary to the constitution of any state
party thereto, the compact shall remain in full force and effect as
to the remaining states and in full force and effect as to the state
affected as to all severable matters.
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