2016 -- H 7829

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LC004974

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO DELINQUENT AND DEPENDENT CHILDREN -- PROCEEDINGS IN

FAMILY COURT

     Introduced By: Representatives Edwards, Shekarchi, Lima, Canario, and Hull

     Date Introduced: March 03, 2016

     Referred To: House Judiciary

     (Dept. of Children & Families)

It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 14-1-60 of the General Laws in Chapter 14-1 entitled "Proceedings

in Family Court" is hereby repealed.

     14-1-60. Costs incurred by children's friend and service. -- All costs and expenses

attending the making of any complaint by any agent of the children's friend and service and the

proceedings on the complaint under the provisions of this chapter shall be paid by the state.

     SECTION 2. Chapter 14-4 of the General Laws entitled "O'Rourke Children's Center" is

hereby repealed in its entirety.

CHAPTER 14-4

O'Rourke Children's Center

     14-4-1. Responsibility for control and maintenance of center. -- The control and

maintenance of the state home and school for dependent and neglected children shall be vested in

the department of children, youth, and families. The school shall be known as the Doctor Patrick

I. O'Rourke children's center of Rhode Island. The department shall establish a system of

government for the children's center and shall make all necessary rules and regulations for

imparting instruction for the proper training of the children.

     14-4-2. Receipt and care of children -- Release or return to other custodial

authority. -- The department of children, youth, and families shall receive, in accordance with

the rules established by it, any children that may be declared vagrant, truant, neglected, or

dependent on the public for support, pursuant to this chapter, who are under eighteen (18) years

of age, and who are in a suitable condition of mind to be instructed, and may release or discharge

any child from its care and custody to the child's relatives or others whenever the director of the

department is satisfied that the object of the commitment has been accomplished and conditions

appertaining to the child are deemed to justify the release or discharge. Any child who shall be

found by the director to be of unsound mind, or who may be considered by the director an

improper inmate of the institution, shall be immediately returned by the department to the

custodial authority from whom the child was received, who are hereby required to receive the

child.

     14-4-3. Purposes of chapter -- Placement of children in institutions or homes --

Guardianship and control. -- (a) It is declared to be the object of this chapter to provide for

neglected and dependent children, not recognized as vicious or criminal, any influences that will

lead toward an honest, intelligent, and self-supporting manhood and womanhood, the state, so far

as possible, holding to them the parental relation. But if at any time, in the discretion of the

director of children, youth, and families, this object can be better attained by placing a child in a

good family of the same religious belief as the parents of the child, the director shall have the

power to do so on condition that the child's education shall be provided for by that family in the

public schools of the town or city where they may reside, or in some other suitable public school

or private school; and whenever that course is desirable or necessary, the department of children,

youth, and families may pay any amount that may be agreed upon for the care and support of the

child.

      (b) The director may in his or her discretion place any child requiring special treatment,

training, or oversight in any institution, controlled by persons of the same religious belief as the

parents of the child, providing that special treatment, training, or oversight, and may pay any

amount that may be agreed upon for the care and support of the child.

      (c) The director is the legal guardian of all children entrusted to his or her control and

charged with the duty of following any children that may be placed in families or institutions with

watchful care, and of taking those children back to his or her immediate supervision at any time

when in his or her judgment the welfare of the children requires that action. In case any child

shall leave without permission or is taken by any unauthorized person from the children's center

or from any family or any institution where it shall have been placed by the director, then the

director is authorized to take and restore the child to the children's center or to the family or to the

institution.

      (d) In case of any medical emergency arising with respect to any child entrusted to the

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control and custody of the director, he or she shall have the power to authorize medical treatment

for the child, provided notice is given to him or her by any duly-licensed physician or dentist that

a medical emergency exists and treatment is immediately necessary for the health of the child

involved. In the event the parents of the child are immediately available and legally competent to

give consent to any treatment, the director shall take all reasonable means to seek their approval

for medical treatment to be rendered.

     14-4-3.1. Transfer of children -- Hearing. -- (a) Prior to transferring a child from a

foster family home in which the child has resided for a period of at least two (2) years, to a

facility other than the home of the parent, the department of children, youth, and families shall

notify the foster family, in writing, ten (10) days prior to the proposed transfer, that if it disagrees

with the transfer, it is entitled to an administrative hearing in accordance with chapter 35 of title

42. If the foster family desires a hearing, it must notify the department within ten (10) days. After

the notification, the department shall hold a hearing within twenty (20) days of the request.

      (b) Nothing contained in this chapter shall prevent the department from exercising all

rights and powers provided by chapter 11 of title 40.

      (c) This section shall apply retroactively to those foster placements existing on and after

January 1, 1981. Otherwise it shall apply prospectively.

     14-4-4. Registration of children under care of department. -- The department of

children, youth, and families shall provide a book in which shall be registered: (1) the names,

ages, and places of birth of the children under its care; (2) the residence of the parents or

guardians as nearly as can be ascertained; (3) the date when each child is received and from what

city or town, and when he or she leaves the center; and (4) whenever a child is placed in a family,

the name, residence, and occupation of the family. That book shall be open at all times for the

inspection of the probate clerks and the directors of public welfare of the several cities and towns

of the state.

     14-4-5. Annual reports. -- (a) The director of children, youth and families or his or her

agent shall submit to the family court a written report once per year on each child entrusted to his

or her care and control pursuant to an order or decree of the family court. The report shall contain

information concerning: (1) the physical placement of the child; (2) the care and nurturing the

child is receiving; (3) the involvement and support of the parents or other person previously

having custody; and (4) the efforts made by the parent(s) and/or the department in reuniting the

child and parents. In addition, the report shall set forth the permanent plan for the well-being of

the child.

      (b) As a result of a review of the report, a justice of the family court may order an

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immediate hearing and summon before the court representatives of the department and the

parents or other person previously having custody of the child in order to determine that an

appropriate plan for the child is undertaken. An appropriate plan may include: (1) a return of the

child to the parents; (2) the child remaining in foster care on a planned basis; or (3) a petition

being instituted for the termination of the parental rights of the parents pursuant to § 15-7-7 if the

court finds reasonable cause to believe that grounds exist for it. In an order of disposition entered

pursuant to this section, the best interest of the child shall be paramount.

     SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO DELINQUENT AND DEPENDENT CHILDREN -- PROCEEDINGS IN

FAMILY COURT

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     This act would repeal §14-1-61 regarding the placement for costs and expenses for

certain complaints filed in family court, and chapter 4 of title 14, which establishes the O'Rourke

Children's Center.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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