1. (a) Jurisdiction and residency requirements.

   1. (1) The Division of Children and Family Services will participate in the adoption of a minor who is in Department of Human Services custody or for whom the court has retained jurisdiction only if either the person seeking to adopt the child, or the child, is currently a resident of Arkansas.

   2. (2)

      1. (A) The family planning to adopt may live in Arkansas or reside out-of-state and have an approved adoption home study from a licensed adoption agency in their state.
      2. (B) The family’s home study must be on file in the Adoption Services Unit.

   3. (3) Residency to determine jurisdiction over an adoption may be established in accordance with one (1) of the three (3) following sets of criteria:

      1. (A) A child under the age of six (6) months is a resident of Arkansas if:

2. (i) The biological mother resided in Arkansas for more than four (4) months prior to the child’s birth;

   1. (ii) The child was born in Arkansas or in any city which adjoins the state line or is separated only by a navigable river from an Arkansas city which adjoins the state line; and

      1. (iii)
3. (a) (a) The child remains in this state until the interlocutory decree has been entered.

4. (b) (b) Or in the case of a nonresident adoptive family, upon receipt of Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), Arkansas Code § 9-29-201 et seq., approval, the child and the prospective adoptive parents may go back to their state of residence and subsequently may return to Arkansas for a hearing on the petition for adoption;

   1. (B) A child over the age of six (6) months is a resident of Arkansas if that child:

      1. (i) Has resided in this state for at least six (6) months;

         1. (ii) Currently resides in Arkansas; and
         2. (iii) Is present in this state when the petition for adoption is filed and heard by a court of competent jurisdiction; or

      2. (C) A person seeking to adopt a child is a resident of Arkansas if that person:

         1. (i) Occupies a dwelling within the state;
         2. (ii) Has a present intent to remain within the state for a period of time; and
         3. (iii) Manifests the genuineness of that intent by establishing an ongoing physical presence within the state with indications that the person’s presence within the state is something other than merely transitory in nature.

5. (b) Development and assessment of adoptive placements.

   1. (1)

      1. (A) The division recruits, assesses, prepares, and retains resource families interested in adoption.
      2. (B) Development and maintenance of resource homes, including homes designated for adoptive services (to include preadoptive services), will be done as required by policies within 9 CAR § 40-801 et seq.
      3. (C) Criteria for consideration in determining the appropriateness of homes wishing to provide adoptive services will be the same as that of any other approved resource home as outlined in policies within 9 CAR § 40-801 et seq.

   2. (2)

      1. (A) When identifying an adoptive family, the division focuses on finding families for children rather than finding children for families.
      2. (B) Assessment and preparation of prospective resource families, that desire to adopt, are completed according to a specific child’s needs.
      3. (C) The child’s health, safety, and well-being will be of paramount concern in the development of the adoptive placement.

   3. (3)

      1. (A) Members of the adoptive household must be physically capable of sustaining a meaningful relationship with the child on a level that meets the child’s developmental and therapeutic needs until the child reaches the age of majority.
      2. (B) The adoptive caregivers must be physically capable of providing the child with opportunities for growth and development both emotionally and socially.
      3. (C) Adoption staff may request additional personal health information, based on healthcare records received.

   4. (4)

      1. (A) Each family and child will be carefully assessed and prepared for adoption.
      2. (B) The division provides preplacement services for adoptions to move children into adoptive families in a timely manner.
      3. (C) A child in foster care, placed in an adoptive home, continues status as a child in foster care until finalization of the adoption.

   5. (5)

      1. (A) A child in foster care may be placed in a relative or fictive kin resource home that may later adopt the child as appropriate and when in the best interest of the child.
      2. (B) When appropriate, a child’s relatives will also be pursued as possible adoptive placements including after termination of parental rights (TPR) (see 9 CAR § 40-910, termination of parental rights) and even if those relatives had not previously or are not currently serving as a relative resource home.
      3. (C) This includes adoption by noncitizen relatives if such a placement is in the best interest of the child.

   6. (6)

      1. (A) When in the best interest of the child, the division supports adoption by resource parents or provisional resource parents, who have a well-established relationship with the child in his or her care and who express an interest in adoption without regard to any racial or ethnic differences.
      2. (B) A child in foster care, who resides in a residential or long-term care facility due to illness or disability, may be adopted by a person who has been approved by the division.

   7. (7)

      1. (A) The division employees who are related to children in foster care may be approved to adopt their relatives, if they are an appropriate placement.
      2. (B) Other division employees may apply to become resource parents with the intent of adopting.
      3. (C) These employee applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis and must have Director of the Division of Children and Family Services approval.

   8. (8)

      1. (A) Siblings will be placed together in the same adoptive home.
      2. (B) Siblings may only be placed separately upon written documentation by a mental health professional, or a judicial ruling that placement of the siblings together would be detrimental to their best interests or is otherwise not possible at the time of placement due to treatment needs of one (1) or more of the siblings (e.g., one (1) of the children is currently in a residential treatment facility and will need to be placed with the siblings in the adoptive home upon completion of treatment).

      3. (C) Maintaining sibling groups will be paramount in adoption considerations.

         1. (c) Recruitment activities.
   9. (1) Recruitment for an adoptive placement for a child may begin at any point as appropriate while the child is in foster care.
   10. (2) However, children may not attend matching events until after termination of parental rights has occurred and all relatives and fictive kin for the child have been explored as permanency options for the child.
   11. (3) A thorough search for and evaluation of all relatives and fictive kin must be documented prior to beginning nonrelative recruitment efforts for a child.
   12. (4) Children will attend matching events after termination of parental rights has occurred, even if an appeal of the termination of parental rights is pending.

   13. (5) However, recruitment efforts will not include use of the Arkansas Heart Gallery if an appeal of the termination of parental rights is pending.

       1. (d) Legal risk placements.
   14. (1) A legal risk placement is a preadoptive placement with a resource family, involving a child whose parents’ rights have not been terminated or an appeal of termination of parental rights is pending.
   15. (2) Legal risk placements may be considered at any time after a child enters foster care.
   16. (3) The division may, in consultation with other parties to the case, consider a legal risk placement when there is limited likelihood that reunification will occur.
   17. (4) The division will be purposeful in the use of legal risk placement, by carefully assessing each individual family’s circumstances and the best interest of the child.

6. (e) Disclosure preparation and requirements.

   1. (1)

      1. (A) As soon as an adoptive placement is identified for a child, the Adoption Specialist will create a disclosure for adoption packet for each adoptive child in preparation for formal disclosure to prospective adoptive families.
      2. (B) During the formal disclosure, once the prospective adoptive parents are identified, the Adoption Specialist will discuss the disclosure packet in detail with them.
      3. (C) The disclosure packet is a detailed, health, genetic, and social history of the child, which excludes identifying information pertaining to parent or parents or members of a parent’s or parents’ family.
      4. (D) The information shall be set forth in a document that is separate from any document containing information identifying the parents or members of the parents’ family.

   2. (2)

      1. (A) The “CFS-471: Disclosure for Adoption”, shall be identified as a detailed, written, health, genetic, and social history, and shall be filed with the clerk before the entry of the adoption decree.
      2. (B) Upon order of the court for good cause shown, the clerk of the circuit court may tender to a person identified by the court a copy of the disclosure for adoption.

   3. (3)

      1. (A) If there is a pending child maltreatment report on the family, the Adoption Specialist will stop proceedings until a determination is made.
      2. (B) The investigation is to be reviewed and discussed with the Adoption Supervisor and the Adoption Manager.

7. (f) Death of a child in a preadoptive placement.

   1. (1)

      1. (A) When a child in a preadoptive placement dies prior to the finalization of the adoption decree and there is no probable cause to suspect abuse or neglect, the presumptive adoptive parents may be entitled to an adoption decree and birth certificate for the deceased child.
      2. (B) All postmortem adoptions require the division consent.
      3. (C) The preadoptive parents may also be eligible for additional court approved services and accommodations upon request for postmortem adoption services but will not be eligible for an adoption subsidy (this does not refer to legal assistance provided by the Office of Chief Counsel when finalizing the adoption decree).

   2. (2) Specific to the issue of postmortem adoptions, preadoptive homes include:

      1. (A) Placements where the child has been placed in resource care for preadoption with parental rights terminated;
      2. (B) Resource homes in which the parents have made a formal request (CFS-489: Request for Consideration to Adopt) to adopt a child currently placed in their home for foster care; and
      3. (C) Any home in which a provisional resource parent with custody has submitted official notice of intent to adopt the child placed with them.
   3. (3) However, if the child’s death is a result of abuse or neglect on the part of the preadoptive parent or parents the adoption decree will not be finalized through the division.
8. (g) Services and supports to preadoptive and postadoptive placements. The division works to support resource families and children placed in resource homes in preadoptive placements and after the finalization of adoptions, to ensure that adoption, when that is the best permanency option, is timely, well-supported, and lifelong.

9. (h) Adoption records.

   1. (1) All records of any adoption, finalized in the State of Arkansas, shall be maintained for ninety-nine (99) years.
   2. (2) The Juvenile Division of Circuit Court shall retain jurisdiction to issue orders of adoption, interlocutory or final, when a juvenile is placed outside the State of Arkansas, unless the court allows for finalization in the receiving state.

Codification Notes: This section as promulgated prior to codification into the Code of Arkansas Rules provided as follows: "01/2021"