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SB-807 Adoption facilitators.(2023-2024)



Current Version: 04/17/23 - Amended Senate

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SB807:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  April 17, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 807

Introduced by Senator Ochoa Bogh

February 17, 2023

An act to amend Sections 8629 and 8632.5 of 8609, 8610, and 8621 of, to add Section 8621.5 to, to repeal Sections 8637 and 8921 of, and to repeal Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 8623 of Part 2 of Division 13 of, the Family Code, relating to adoption.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 807, as amended, Ochoa Bogh. Adoption facilitators.
Existing law generally sets forth the procedures and requirements for an adoption and authorizes an adoption facilitator to provide specific adoption services. Under existing law, the birthparents or adoptive parents may revoke a contract and request the return of any fees paid to an adoption facilitator, as specified. services, including advertising for the purpose of soliciting parties to an adoption or locating children for an adoption or acting as an intermediary between the parties to an adoption, and charging a fee or other valuable consideration for services rendered.

This bill would prohibit an adoption facilitator from collecting or accepting payment from a prospective adoptive family prior to the placement of the child with the adoptive family.

Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to adopt regulations for a statewide registration and enforcement process for adoption facilitators. Existing law required the department, on or before January 1, 2008, to make specific recommendations to the Legislature, including how to implement a department program to accept and compile complaints against registered adoption facilitators and to provide public access to those complaints, as specified.

This bill would require the department to publicly post the number of complaints received for each adoption facilitator on its internet website, as specified. repeal the provisions relating to adoption facilitators and would expressly prohibit a person or organization from engaging in specified activities relating to adoption, unless the person or organization is either licensed as an adoption agency by the State Department of Social Services or an attorney licensed to practice law in California. The bill would make various conforming changes.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 8609 of the Family Code is amended to read:

8609.
 (a) Any person or organization that, without holding either a valid and unrevoked license to place children for adoption issued by the department, or a valid and unrevoked license to practice law in California, advertises in any periodical or newspaper, by radio, or other public medium, that he, she, or it the person or organization will place children for adoption, or accept, supply, provide, or obtain children for adoption, or that causes any advertisement to be published in or by any public medium soliciting, requesting, or asking for any child or children for adoption is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(b) Any person, other than a birth parent, or any organization, association, or corporation that, without holding a valid and unrevoked license to place children for adoption issued by the department, places any child for adoption is guilty of a misdemeanor.

SEC. 2.

 Section 8610 of the Family Code is amended to read:

8610.
 (a) The petitioners in a proceeding for adoption of a child shall file with the court a full accounting report of all disbursements of anything of value made or agreed to be made by them or on their behalf in connection with the birth of the child, the placement of the child with the petitioners, any medical or hospital care received by the child’s birth mother or by the child in connection with the child’s birth, any other expenses of either birth parent, or the adoption. The accounting report shall be made under penalty of perjury and shall be submitted to the court on or before the date set for the hearing on the adoption petition, unless the court grants an extension of time.
(b) The accounting report shall be itemized in detail and shall show the services relating to the adoption or to the placement of the child for adoption that were and shall include details regarding payments for all adoption-related services received by the petitioners, by either birth parent, or by the child, or by any other person for whom payment was made by or on behalf of the petitioners. child. The report shall also include the dates of each payment, the names and addresses of each attorney, physician and surgeon, hospital, or licensed adoption agency, or other person or organization who received any funds of the petitioners in connection with the adoption or the placement of the child with them, or participated in any way in the handling of those funds, either directly or indirectly. payment.
(c) This section does not apply to an adoption by a stepparent where one birth parent or adoptive parent retains custody and control of the child.

SEC. 3.

 Section 8621 of the Family Code is amended to read:

8621.
 The department shall adopt regulations regarding the provision of adoption services by the department, county adoption agencies, licensed adoption agencies, and other adoption service providers, providers authorized pursuant to this section, and shall monitor the provision of those services by county adoption agencies, licensed adoption agencies, and other adoption providers. service providers as provided by law. The department shall report violations of regulations to the appropriate licensing authority.

This section shall become operative on January 1, 1995.

SEC. 4.

 Section 8621.5 is added to the Family Code, to read:

8621.5.
 A person or organization shall not engage in either of the following activities unless the person or organization is licensed as an adoption agency by the department or an attorney licensed to practice law in California:
(a) Advertising for the purpose of soliciting parties to an adoption, locating children for an adoption, or acting as an intermediary between the parties to an adoption.
(b) Charging a fee or other valuable consideration for services rendered relating to an adoption, whether directly or indirectly, for locating children for adoption, or acting as an intermediary between the parties to an adoption.

SEC. 5.

 Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 8623) of Part 2 of Division 13 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 6.

 Section 8637 of the Family Code is repealed.
8637.

Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter, an attorney who provides services specified in Section 8623 related to facilitating an adoption shall be subject only to those provisions of law regulating the practice of law.

SEC. 7.

 Section 8921 of the Family Code is repealed.
8921.

An adoption facilitator shall not offer, provide, or facilitate any adoption service, as described in this chapter, in connection with a convention adoption unless it is registered and posts a bond pursuant to Section 8632.5, and is approved by the accrediting entity pursuant to Subpart F (commencing with Section 96.29) of Part 96 of Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

SECTION 1.Section 8629 of the Family Code is amended to read:
8629.

(a)For a period of 72 hours after signing a contract or after the payment of a fee, the birthparents or the prospective adoptive parents may revoke the contract and request the return of any fees paid, without penalty, except for reasonable fees actually earned by the facilitator and that are supported by written records or documentation.

(b)Notwithstanding subdivision (a), an adoption facilitator shall not collect or accept a payment from a prospective adoptive family prior to the placement of the child with the adoptive family.

SEC. 2.Section 8632.5 of the Family Code is amended to read:
8632.5.

(a)The department shall establish and adopt regulations for a statewide registration and enforcement process for adoption facilitators. The department shall also establish and adopt regulations to require adoption facilitators to post a bond as required by this section.

(b)The department may adapt the process it uses to register adoption service providers in order to provide a similar registration process for adoption facilitators. The process used by the department shall include a procedure for determining the status of bond compliance by adoption facilitators, a means for accepting or denying organizations seeking inclusion in the adoption facilitator registry, a means for removing adoption facilitators from the adoption facilitator registry, and an appeals process for those entities denied inclusion in or removed from the adoption facilitator registry. The department may deny or revoke inclusion in the registry for adoption facilitators to an applicant who does not possess a criminal record clearance or exemption issued by the department pursuant to Section 1522 of the Health and Safety Code and the criminal record clearance regulations applicable to personnel of private adoption agencies. Criminal record clearances and exemptions granted to adoption facilitators are not transferable.

(c)Upon the establishment by the department of a registration process, all adoption facilitators that operate independently from a licensed public or private adoption agency or an adoption attorney in this state shall be required to register with the department.

(d)An adoption facilitator, when posting a bond, shall also file with the department a disclosure form containing the adoption facilitator’s name, date of birth, residence address, business address, residence telephone number, business telephone number, and the number of adoptions facilitated for the previous year. Along with the disclosure form, the adoption facilitator shall provide all of the following information to the department:

(1)Proof that the facilitator and a member of the staff who provides direct adoption services has completed two years of college courses, with at least half of the units and hours focusing on social work or a related field.

(2)Proof that the facilitator and a member of the staff who provides direct adoption services has a minimum of three years of experience employed by a public or private adoption agency licensed by the department, a registered adoption facilitator, or an adoption attorney who assists in bringing adopting persons and placing parents together for the purpose of adoption placement.

(A)An adoption facilitator and a member of the staff subject to this paragraph may waive the educational and experience requirements by satisfying all of the following requirements:

(i)The person has over five years of work experience providing direct adoption services for a licensed adoption agency.

(ii)The person has not been found liable of malfeasance in connection with providing adoption services.

(iii)The person provides three separate letters of support attesting to their ethics and work providing direct adoption services from any of the following:

(I)A licensed public or private adoption agency.

(II)A member of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers.

(III)The State Department of Social Services.

(B)An adoption facilitator who is registered with the department may also register staff members under the designation of “trainee.” A trainee may provide direct adoption services without meeting the requirements of this paragraph. A trainee registered with the department shall be directly supervised by an individual who meets all registration requirements.

(3)A valid business license.

(4)A valid, current, government-issued identification to determine the adoption facilitator’s identity, such as a California driver’s license, identification card, passport, or other form of identification that is acceptable to the department.

(5)Fingerprint images for a background check to be used by the department for the purposes described in this section.

(e)The State Department of Social Services may submit fingerprint images of adoption facilitators to the Department of Justice for the purpose of obtaining criminal offender record information regarding state- and federal-level convictions and arrests, including arrests for which the Department of Justice establishes that the person is free on bail or on their own recognizance pending trial or appeal.

(1)The Department of Justice shall forward to the Federal Bureau of Investigation requests for federal summary criminal history information received pursuant to this section. The Department of Justice shall review the information returned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and compile and disseminate a response to the department.

(2)The Department of Justice shall provide a response to the department pursuant to subdivision (m) of Section 11105 of the Penal Code.

(3)The department shall request from the Department of Justice subsequent arrest notification service, as provided pursuant to Section 11105.2 of the Penal Code.

(4)The Department of Justice shall charge a fee sufficient to cover the cost of processing the request described in this section.

(5)The department may only release an applicant’s criminal record information search response as provided in subparagraph (G) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 1522 of the Health and Safety Code.

(f)The department may impose a fee upon applicants for each set of classifiable fingerprint cards that it processes pursuant to paragraph (5) of subdivision (d).

(g)The department shall post on its internet website the registration and bond requirements required by this chapter and a list of adoption facilitators in compliance with the registration and bond requirements of this chapter. The department shall ensure that the information is current and shall update the information at least once every 30 days.

(h)The department shall develop the disclosure form required pursuant to subdivision (d) and shall make it available to any adoption facilitator posting a bond.

(i)The department may charge adoption facilitators an annual filing fee to recover all costs associated with the requirements of this section and that fee shall be set by regulation.

(j)The department may create an Adoption Facilitator Account for deposit of fees received from registrants.

(k)(1)On or before January 1, 2008, the department shall make recommendations for the registry program to the Legislature, including a recommendation on how to implement a department program to accept and compile complaints against registered adoption facilitators and to provide public access to those complaints, by specific facilitator, through the department’s internet website.

(2)On or before July 1, 2024, the department shall, on a monthly basis, publicly post on its internet website the number of complaints received for each adoption facilitator for both of the following:

(A)The preceding month.

(B)The cumulative total for the preceding 12 months.

(l)The adoption facilitator registry established pursuant to this section shall become operative on the first day of the first month following an appropriation from the Adoption Facilitator Account to the State Department of Social Services for the startup costs and the costs of administration of the adoption facilitator registry.