§ 62A-4a-602. Licensure requirements -- Prohibited acts.

(1) No person, agency, firm, corporation, association, or group children's home may engage in child placing, or solicit money or other assistance for child placing, without a valid license issued by the Office of Licensing, in accordance with Chapter 2, Licensure of Programs and Facilities. When a child placing agency's license is suspended or revoked in accordance with that chapter, the care, control, or custody of any child who has been in the care, control, or custody of that agency shall be transferred to the division.

(2)

(a) An attorney, physician, or other person may assist a parent in identifying or locating a person interested in adopting the parent's child, or in identifying or locating a child to be adopted. However, no payment, charge, fee, reimbursement of expense, or exchange of value of any kind, or promise or agreement to make the same, may be made for that assistance.

(b) An attorney, physician, or other person may not:

(i) issue or cause to be issued to any person a card, sign, or device indicating that he is available to provide that assistance;

(ii) cause, permit, or allow any sign or marking indicating that he is available to provide that assistance, on or in any building or structure;

(iii) announce or cause, permit, or allow an announcement indicating that he is available to provide that assistance, to appear in any newspaper, magazine, directory, or on radio or television; or

(iv) advertise by any other means that he is available to provide that assistance.

(3) Nothing in this part precludes payment of fees for medical, legal, or other lawful services rendered in connection with the care of a mother, delivery and care of a child, or lawful adoption proceedings; and no provision of this part abrogates the right of procedures for independent adoption as provided by law.

(4) In accordance with federal law, only agents or employees of the division and of licensed child placing agencies may certify to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service that a family meets the division's preadoption requirements.

(5)

(a) Beginning May 1, 2000, neither a licensed child placing agency nor any attorney practicing in this state may place a child for adoption, either temporarily or permanently, with any individual or individuals that would not be qualified for adoptive placement pursuant to the provisions of Sections 78B-6-117, 78B-6-102, and 78B-6-137.

(b) Beginning May 1, 2000, the division, as a licensed child placing agency, may not place a child in foster care with any individual or individuals that would not be qualified for adoptive placement pursuant to the provisions of Sections 78B-6-117, 78B-6-102, and 78B-6-137. However, nothing in this Subsection (5)(b) limits the placement of a child in foster care with the child's biological or adoptive parent.

(c) Beginning May 1, 2000, with regard to children who are in the custody of the state, the division shall establish a policy providing that priority for foster care and adoptive placement shall be provided to families in which both a man and a woman are legally married under the laws of this state. However, nothing in this Subsection (5)(c) limits the placement of a child with the child's biological or adoptive parent.

Amended by Chapter 3, 2008 General Session