Adoption services

§ 372-b. Adoption services. 1. a. A prospective adoptive parent shall have a right to a fair hearing pursuant to section twenty-two of this chapter concerning the failure of a social services official to provide adoption services authorized to be provided pursuant to this section and the state's consolidated services plan. At the time a child is placed in a prospective adoptive home, the prospective adoptive parent shall be notified in writing of his or her right to such fair hearing.

b. Each social services official shall provide, either directly or through purchase of service, adoption services for each child in their care who is freed for adoption. Such adoption services shall include the evaluation of a child's placement needs and pre-placement planning, recruitment of and homestudy for prospective adoptive parents, training of adoptive parents, placement planning, supervision and post adoption services.

2. The department shall promulgate regulations which shall require that adoption services be made available to all children who are listed with the New York state adoption service. Such regulations shall also provide for cooperation between local social services commissioners, and for apportioning reimbursement for adoption services where more than one agency or social services district has provided such services for a child.

2-a. The department shall promulgate regulations requiring all adoption agencies to forward names and addresses of all persons who have applied for adoption of a hard-to-place or handicapped child, as defined in section four hundred fifty-one of this chapter. A list of such names and addresses shall be maintained by the department and made available, without charge, to every agency in the state to assist them in placing such children for adoption.

3. The department shall promulgate regulations to maintain enlightened adoption policies and to establish standards and criteria for adoption practices.