The purpose of private adoption services is to:

1. A. Effect a permanent plan through private legal adoption as quickly as possible for a child in out-of-home placement who cannot, or should not, be reunited with the child's birth parents;
2. B. Protect children from unnecessary separation from birth parents;
3. C. Provide the child with an adoptive setting which will ensure the child's safety and well-being;
4. D. Assure adoption of a child by qualified individuals;
5. E. Protect the confidentiality of the adoption process;
6. F. Arrange, as appropriate, the exchange of identifying information among an adoptee, birth parents, and birth siblings who register their consent with the Registry;
7. G. Assure that a child adopted in a foreign country is protected in Maryland and that the foreign country's laws, customs, expectations, and requests are, as far as is legally and practically possible, honored in Maryland; and

8. H. Assure potential adoptive parents that the agency will:

   1. (1) Share with them all available appropriate information, and
   2. (2) Minimize financial and personal risks.

Authority: Family Law Article, §§5-101, 5-301—5-414, 5-3A-01 et seq., 5-4A-01 et seq.,5-4B-01 et seq., 5-524, and 5-525, Annotated Code of Maryland. Agency Note ; Federal Regulatory Reference: 42 U.S.C. §670 et seq.; 45 CFR 1355

Effective date: January 12, 2001 (27:26 Md. R. 2357)