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<regulation prefix="Regulation" num=".01" citation="COMAR 07.02.13.01" title_num="07" subtitle_num="02" chapter_num="13" heading="Purpose.">
  <text>The purpose of this chapter is to:</text>
  <paragraph num="A.">
    <text>Allow adult adoptees and eligible birth family members to:</text>
    <paragraph num="(1)">
      <text>Exchange identifying information between all eligible consenting persons who register and are matched through the Maryland Mutual Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry;</text>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(2)">
      <text>Search for and exchange identifying and nonidentifying information between adult adoptees and their birth parents who consent to the services of the Search, Contact, and Reunion Services Program; and</text>
    </paragraph>
    <paragraph num="(3)">
      <text>Maintain confidentiality and anonymity if other birth family members search for the adult adoptees and eligible birth family members, and they do not desire contact;</text>
    </paragraph>
  </paragraph>
  <paragraph num="B.">
    <text>Allow adult adoptees and birth parents to file disclosure vetoes to protect their confidentiality;</text>
  </paragraph>
  <paragraph num="C.">
    <text>Allow a local department to contact a sibling of a minor in out-of-home placement in order to develop a placement resource or facilitate a family connection, if the sibling was adopted through a local department; and</text>
  </paragraph>
  <paragraph num="D.">
    <text>Allow a director of a local department or designee to contact relatives of a minor in out-of-home placement who was adopted through a local department for the purposes of developing a placement resource or to facilitate a family connection if the local department has determined that reunification with the minor’s adoptive parent is not in the minor’s best interest.</text>
  </paragraph>
</regulation>