<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<regulation prefix="Regulation" num=".16-1" citation="COMAR 07.02.11.16-1" title_num="07" subtitle_num="02" chapter_num="11" heading="Guardianship Notice Requirements.">
  <paragraph num="A.">
    <text>Notice to Birth Parent of Petition for Guardianship.</text>
    <paragraph num="(1)">
      <text>When a local department decides to petition the court for guardianship, the local department shall advise both birth parents, regardless of marital status, of that decision and that unless waived, they shall receive the types of notices described in this section, whether or not they are consenting to the court action.</text>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(2)">
      <text>The local department shall notify a birth parent who is consenting to the termination of parental rights that the birth parent has the right to revoke the consent at any time within 30 days after the consent is filed.</text>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(3)">
      <text>The local department shall notify the following of the filing of the petition:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>The birth parent, unless the birth parent waived, in writing, the right to be notified of that action as a part of the consent; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>The attorney who represented the birth parent in a prior juvenile proceeding in which the child was adjudicated to be a child in need of assistance, a neglected child, or an abused child.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(4)">
      <text>The local department shall notify a birth parent of the right, unless waived in writing, to be notified of the child's status when:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>Placement for adoption has not been made within 9 months of the date of the decree of guardianship;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>Placement for adoption has been made within 9 months of the date of the decree of guardianship, but before an adoption decree was issued, the adoption placement discontinued and the local department has not made a new placement for adoption within 120 days of the removal from the adoptive home; or</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(c)">
        <text>Decree of adoption has not been issued by the court within 2 years of placement for adoption.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(5)">
      <text>In the case of a missing birth parent, the local department shall:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>Make reasonable efforts to locate the birth parent to explain the plan for the child and to attempt to obtain the birth parent's consent; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>Document those efforts in the case record.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(6)">
      <text>Within the 6 months preceding the filing of the petition, the local department shall make reasonable efforts to locate a missing birth parent, which shall include an inquiry of the following:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>The State Motor Vehicle Administration;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>Maryland local departments of social services;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(c)">
        <text>The State Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(d)">
        <text>The State Division of Parole and Probation;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(e)">
        <text>The detention center for the local jurisdiction in which the petition is filed;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(f)">
        <text>The records of the juvenile court for the jurisdiction in which the petition is filed;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(g)">
        <text>A particular social services agency, if the local department is aware that the parent has received benefits from that social services agency within 9 months preceding the filing of the petition;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(h)">
        <text>A detention facility, if the local department is aware that the parent has been confined to that facility within 9 months preceding the filing of the petition;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(i)">
        <text>Each of the following individuals that the local department is able to locate and contact:</text>
        <paragraph num="(i)">
          <text>The other parent of the child,</text>
        </paragraph>
        <paragraph num="(ii)">
          <text>Known members of the parent's immediate family, and</text>
        </paragraph>
        <paragraph num="(iii)">
          <text>The parent's current or last known employer;</text>
        </paragraph>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(j)">
        <text>The Federal Parent Locator Service; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(k)">
        <text>Certified letters to last known address of missing parent.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(7)">
      <text>Efforts to locate a missing parent shall be by personal contact, a search of the computer files of the agencies listed and the Federal Parent Locator Service, or by written inquiry by regular mail. If there is no response to a written inquiry within 30 days after it is mailed, the failure to respond is to be considered a negative response.</text>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(8)">
      <text>When the local department completes its inquiry of the agencies and individuals listed in §A(6) of this regulation and does not locate the missing parent, the local department staff shall:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>Refer the case to counsel for filing of a petition for termination of parental rights; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>Verify by affidavit or testimony that these inquiries have been made and that they were made within the 6 months preceding the filing of the petition.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(9)">
      <text>The local department shall comply with the order of the court requiring publication of the show cause order in at least one or more newspapers of general circulation published in the county in which the petition is filed. The petition must show notice of filing that the Department has on its website for guardianship and mutual consent adoption.</text>
    </paragraph>
  </paragraph>
  <paragraph num="B.">
    <text>Local Department Responsibilities After Award of Guardianship.</text>
    <paragraph num="(1)">
      <text>Once the local department has been awarded guardianship, the local department shall make every effort to locate an adoptive family for the child, as stated in COMAR 07.02.12, through:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>The Maryland Adoption Resource Exchange;</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>Local department and central office recruitment efforts; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(c)">
        <text>Registration with regional and national exchanges.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(2)">
      <text>When any of the conditions set forth in §A(4) of this regulation occur, the local department shall file a written report with the circuit court and forward a copy to Administration, which shall:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>State the reasons for the delay in placement; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>Include a summary of the efforts to locate an adoptive home for the child and a report of the child's placement status.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(3)">
      <text>The local department shall notify birth parent at their last known address:</text>
      <paragraph num="(a)">
        <text>In all cases when guardianship was awarded on or after July 1, 1982; and</text>
      </paragraph>
      <paragraph num="(b)">
        <text>When the birth parent did not waive the right to notice of the child's status as set forth in §A(4) of this regulation.</text>
      </paragraph>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(4)">
      <text>Once the legal rights of the birth parent of a child in out-of-home placement have been terminated by the court, the child's caseworker shall notify the appropriate office of child support enforcement that termination of parental rights has been achieved, unless an arrangement exists by which the court makes the notification.</text>
    </paragraph>
  </paragraph>
</regulation>