Section 3130.36. Adoption services

(a) The county agency shall make adoption services available to a child in the custody or under the supervision of the county agency who is in temporary, substitute care and who cannot be returned to his own home.

(b) Adoption services include the following:

(1) Adoption service. Activities designed to culminate in legal adoption of a child, including adoptive home recruitment, study of adoptive parent applicants, placement and supervision of the child in the adoptive home, preparation and presentation of material for the adoption hearing and ensuring adoption assistance, when needed.

(2) Adoption assistance. The county shall actively seek ways to promote the adoption assistance program as set forth in Chapter 3140 Subchapter C (relating to adoption assistance).

(c) The county agency shall, upon request of another county agency, conduct a study of adoptive parent applicants residing in that county who seek to adopt a child who is in placement under the case management responsibility of the county agency requesting the study. The county agency conducting the study may apply its fee schedule as established under § 3130.21(h)(3) (relating to responsibilities of county executive officers) to pay the cost of the study.

(d) Before making a request of another county agency for an adoptive study under subsection (c), the county agency shall seek other alternatives. The alternatives may include the following:

(1) Arranging for an adoptive study through a private agency.

(2) Considering other ways of arranging a study with the adoptive parent.

(e) The county agency shall comply with the Pennsylvania Adoption Cooperative Exchange Act (11 P. S. § § 2501—2507).

The provisions of this § 3130.36 amended January 23, 1987, effective January 24, 1987, except subsections (c) and (d) effective April 24, 1987, 17 Pa.B. 392. Immediately preceding text appears at serial page (97942).

Notation

Authority

The provisions of this § 3130.36 amended under Articles II, VII, IX and X of the Public Welfare Code (62 P. S. § § 201—211, 701—774, 901—922 and 1001—1080).

Notes of Decisions

Adoption Assistance

In accordance with this section relating to the administration of the various counties’ Children and Youth Services agencies, the direction that, ‘‘[t]he county shall actively seek ways to promote the adoption assistance program as set forth in Chapter 3140 Subchapter C (relating to adoption assistance)’’ requires that Children and Youth Services (CYS) utilize all available Federal policy interpretations if it enables a greater number of adopted children to benefit from this Federally funded program; in this instance, the court adopts the Federal policy interpretations PIQ 87-05 and PIQ 92-02 as being indicative of the standard required of state and Federal law on adoption assistance; thus, this court holds that the local agency must first find, not just ‘‘an appropriate’’ adoptive home, but must first ‘‘locate the most suitable family for the child,’’ without regard for whether or not the most suitable family does or does not require any form of assistance. Gruzinski v. Department of Public Welfare, 731 A.2d 246 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1999); appeal denied 747 A.2d 902 (Pa. 1999).

Dependency

Considering enormous implications of dependency finding, such a determination can only be made in compliance with statutory requirements regarding dependency determinations and cannot be made by trial court sua sponte without petition for dependency having been filed. Fallaro v. Yeager, 528 A.2d 222 (Pa. Super. 1987).

Cross References

This section cited in 55 Pa. Code § 3140.17 (relating to review of county plans and budgets).