The New Jersey Safe Haven Infant Protection Act

How Does the New Jersey Safe Haven Infant Protection Act Work?

According to national statistics, incidents of child abandonment in public places rose by more than 60% in the 1990s. In 2007, New Jersey enacted a law to provide a safe and compassionate manner in which to relinquish a child. New Jersey adoption lawyers report that this law has saved the lives of at least 90 infants since then.

What Is Deemed to Be a Safe Haven?

The New Jersey law is designed to provide a safe haven for both the infant and the parent(s). There are women and couples, often young ones, who are confused, desperate and scared. Those emotions may lead them to rash decisions, such as leaving an infant in an unsafe place.

Rather than abandon the infant, they can bring the child to a safe haven. The baby must appear to be no more than 30 days old. No advance notice is required. The safe haven locations are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a person can surrender a child with any:

  • Hospital
  • Ambulance
  • Fire station
  • Police station
  • Rescue squad

The Process Is Both Legal and Anonymous

The safe haven is not only available to parents; it is an option for anyone acting on their behalf as well. Furthermore, it is legal. There is no potential for charges against the parents or their advocates. It is also anonymous. No one has to provide any information at all. In fact, the law specifies that the person taking the baby in an official capacity cannot ask any questions. The law does ask that they provide an official questionnaire and that they stress that completing the questionnaire does not compromise anonymity or any of the legal protections. The staff may also offer medical treatment and social services as needed.

The Process Is Safe

The safe haven also gives parents and their advocates peace of mind. When you surrender a child in this manner, you do so knowing that the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) will take possession of the infant. The DCF will then take the necessary steps to place the child in a pre-adoptive or foster home.

Volunteered Information

The person dropping off the child can volunteer information, such as their name or the name of the child, but only if they choose to do so. The reason the law requires representatives not to request information is that a person gives up their right to anonymity when they provide these details. When that happens, the state is now compelled by law to search for the child’s relatives in the event they have parental rights or want to adopt.

Limits to the Legal Protection

There are limits to the legal protections that the law provides. If there is evidence of harm to the baby, the person acting in an official capacity is required to document it, seek medical treatment and involve the police. The police will then open an investigation. If, for instance, the police later determine that the person who surrendered the baby was responsible, that person would be charged and not have safe haven protection in that regard.

What If There Is a Change of Mind?

The law also established a reunification program. Anyone with parental rights to the child or who is related to the child and wants to regain or claim custody can. To do this, they can call the Safe Have Hotline at 1-877-839-2339. Note that there are limitations to how long you have to do this based on how far along the adoption process is. Parents and relatives will have at least 48 hours from the time that the infant was surrendered.

Do You Have Questions About Safe Haven Infant Protection?

Cofsky & Zeidman has many years of experience navigating adoptions and related matters in New Jersey as well as in the Philadelphia area. If you have questions concerning the Safe Haven law and your rights, we would like to help. To schedule a case review with a New Jersey adoption lawyer, call our Haddonfield office at (856) 429-5005, or contact us online.

New Jersey Guidelines for Fostering and Adopting

Qualifying to Adopt a Foster Child

Approximately 7 percent of American children are adopted. The face of adoption in the U.S. has changed dramatically in the past few years as more and more adoptive parents seek to welcome older children whom they’ve fostered into their families. If you’re interested in adopting a child from the Garden State foster care system, a New Jersey adoption attorney can prove to be an invaluable resource.

The New Jersey Foster Care Program

Foster care provides a temporary living situation for children who’ve been so neglected or abused that the state has stepped in to suspend parental rights. In 2015, more than 8,000 New Jersey children found themselves living in these types of out-of-home arrangements. Foster children range in age from infants to adolescents nearing legal majority, but the average age of a child in the New Jersey foster care system is 8 years old.

Abuse and neglect have an impact on a child’s behavior, and it can be frightening to be a new kid in a household with strangers and different rules. While three out of every five foster children return to live with their parents or biological parents, two of those five children will see their mother’s and father’s parental rights terminated. Furthermore, they will remain in the custody of New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families until they reach adulthood—unless they are adopted.

 

 

 

New Jersey Guidelines for Fostering and Adopting

In New Jersey, foster parents are identified as “resource families,” and they hold dual licenses that authorize them to provide both foster and adoptive care. What that means in practical terms is that the licensing process is the same whether that family is welcoming a child into its home on a temporary or permanent basis. If it’s appropriate to work toward the reunification of a child with his or her birth parents, foster parents are expected to facilitate that process in any way they can. If reunification is not possible, however, foster parents have the first consideration when it comes to adopting that child.

The Department of Children and Families typically imposes four conditions when they evaluate prospective foster and adoptive parents. They are as follows:

  • Basic safety and living standards: Foster parents must be able to provide a child with a safe and secure home. Each child must have a sleeping area of 50 square feet, and children who are more than 5 years old can only share sleeping spaces with children of the same gender. While there are no income requirements per se, applicants must have a monthly income that’s sufficient to meet the needs of their family members.
  • Criminal background checks: Prospective foster parents and all adults living in the home must be willing to submit to criminal background checks, including finger-print checks of the national crime databases. Depending upon how long ago they took place, minor transgressions may not disqualify a person from becoming a foster parent. However, evidence of violent crimes or crimes that targeted children will terminate the foster application.
  • Home study: A representative of the county or agency through whom you will be fostering will pay a visit to assess the safety of your home and to evaluate whether you and the people with whom you share your home will make suitable foster or adoptive parents. If any changes need to be made, a resource family support worker will advise you. Once your home study has been completed, you will be asked to attend a pre-service training through Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE).
  • Additional training: An additional 24 to 36 hours’ worth of classes, staggered over 4 to 10 weeks, may also be offered. These classes are intended to help you learn more about the needs of children in foster care.

For more information about the ways a New Jersey adoption attorney can help you determine whether adoption through foster care is the right choice for your family, contact Cofsky & Zeidman in Haddonfield, New Jersey, at (856) 429-5005.

Adopting a Child From the State System in New Jersey

New Jersey Public Adoptions Through the State Agency

There are multiple ways people can adopt children in New Jersey, and these include working with a private agency, making a separate arrangement with the birth parents or adopting through the state’s Office of Adoptions Operations. In most cases, adoptions that take place through the Department of Children and Families, Division of Child Protection & Permanency (DCP&P) involve foster parents who have already developed a relationship with the children. The state has a mandate to reunite children in foster care with their birth families, but adoption can be an alternative when reunification is not possible for some reason.

Foster Care and Adoption in New Jersey

In some cases, years of foster care and attempted family reunification may not be prerequisites, and children may be available for permanent placement on a more immediate basis. However, the children who are available often face various challenges. They may be older, have special needs or require placement as part of a sibling group. In some cases, adoption subsidies are available to assist parents with the costs of supporting these children. Adoption subsidies can apply to medical coverage, legal fees or maintenance payments, and around 98 percent of children adopted in this way receive a subsidy. Our NJ adoption attorney can provide you with more information about the advantages and complications of working within the public system.

In order to become a foster parent and move through the state system, you must meet eligibility criteria. You may then specify the types of children you are willing to foster who need homes. The state does not discriminate against prospective parents on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity or marital or domestic status.

Home Studies for NJ Foster Care and Adoption

After you pass an initial review stage, a DCP&P resource family worker will contact you to begin a home study. While a home study is also required for private adoptions in New Jersey, the process associated with becoming a foster or an adoptive parent through the state is more intense.

During the process, the state provides 27 hours of training to parents, including background on the experiences and needs of adopted children. It is important to understand that many aspects of going through the state system can be challenging, and the emotional demands are not the least of these. Children can be reunited with their birth families after a long period of bonding with foster parents. In addition, many children in care face significant personal difficulties. Some have experienced trauma prior to the placement.

A home study involves:

  • Health checks
  • Income verification
  • Child abuse record checks
  • Criminal background checks
  • Personal and employment references
  • Interviews with those living in the home

Whether they plan to adopt or wish to remain as foster parents, all resource families must go through the home study process. In addition, the family and home must be licensed through an inspection.

Matching a Parent With a Potential Adoptive Child

Prospective parents approved after a home study are entered into the system for a preliminary match of available children. If a child is already eligible for adoption, the placement will be supervised for at least six months by a state caseworker. This supervision will include home visits and other kinds of support.

If no issues arise during that time, DCP&P will consent to the adoption. Note that this only applies to children who are already available for adoption; children in foster care normally remain in the system for a much longer time, and depending on their circumstances, they may never be deemed eligible. The state’s consent will be forwarded to the parents’ NJ adoption attorney who can then file a petition for adoption, secure a date for the final hearing and obtain an amended birth certificate for the child.

Parents considering working through the state system to adopt a child can work with our NJ adoption attorney at Cofsky & Zeidman. Attorney Donald C. Cofsky has helped over 1,500 families grow over the years. To set up an appointment for a consultation with an experienced adoption lawyer, call our office in Haddonfield at (856) 429-5005 or our office in Woodbury at (856) 845-2555.

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