(a) No person or agency shall bring or send any child into the State of Alabama for the purpose of placing him or procuring his adoption or placing him in any child-care facility, as defined herein, without first obtaining the consent of the department. The department shall have the power to impose and enforce reasonable conditions precedent to the granting of such consent. Such conditions shall be for the purpose of providing the same care and protection for the child coming into the State of Alabama for placement or adoption as are afforded to a child who is born in the State of Alabama, and such conditions shall include the following:
(1) The department shall be authorized to designate an agency in another state from which said child is being brought or sent, or in which said child's parents or guardian may be found, to interview said parent or parents or guardians, or at least one of them, for the purpose of obtaining social information, background information and medical information about said child;
(2) The department shall be authorized to receive such information from the designated agency in the other state;
(3) The department shall be authorized to receive the birth certificate of said child from the designated agency in the other state or from other appropriate agency in the other state;
(4) The department shall be authorized to make a thorough investigation of the proposed foster parent or parents, and their home, to determine whether or not they are financially able, physically able and morally fit to have the care, supervision, training and control of said child;
(5) The department shall be authorized to make a thorough investigation of any child-care facility to which any child is being brought or sent to determine conformity to minimum standards prescribed herein for approval or licensing and to determine the suitability of such child-care facility for the care, supervision, training and control of said child;
(6) In case said child, subsequent to being brought into the State of Alabama, becomes dependent, neglected or delinquent prior to his adoption or becoming of legal age of majority, said child shall be subject to the laws of the State of Alabama as if he were a resident child of this state;
(7) The child will be placed in conformity with the rules and regulations of the department;
(8) The person with whom the child is placed shall be responsible for his proper care and training;
(9) The department shall have the right of visitation and supervision of the child and the home or the child-care facility in which he is placed until adoption becomes final or the child becomes 18 years of age;
(10) The department may, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, prescribe the conditions of an agreement or contract with the designated out-of-state agency, when a child is brought into the State of Alabama.
(b) The person or agency receiving the child in Alabama shall report to the department at such reasonable times as the department may direct, as to the location and well-being of the child, so long as he shall remain within the state and until he shall have reached the age of 18 years or shall have been legally adopted.
Last modified: May 3, 2021