Florida Statutes 63.167 – State adoption information center
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(1) The department shall establish a state adoption information center for the purpose of increasing public knowledge about adoption and promoting to adolescents and pregnant women the availability of adoption services. The department shall contract with one or more licensed child-placing agencies to operate the state adoption information center.
(2) The functions of the state adoption information center shall include:
(a) Providing a training program for persons who counsel adolescents, including, but not limited to, school counselors, county child welfare services employees, and family planning clinic employees.
Terms Used In Florida Statutes 63.167
- Adoption: means the act of creating the legal relationship between parent and child where it did not exist, thereby declaring the child to be legally the child of the adoptive parents and their heir at law and entitled to all the rights and privileges and subject to all the obligations of a child born to such adoptive parents in lawful wedlock. See Florida Statutes 63.032
- Adoption entity: means the department, a child-caring agency registered under…. See Florida Statutes 63.032
- Adoption plan: means an arrangement made by a birth parent or other individual having a legal right to custody of a minor, born or to be born, with an adoption entity in furtherance of placing the minor for adoption. See Florida Statutes 63.032
- Child: means any unmarried person under the age of 18 years who has not been emancipated by court order. See Florida Statutes 63.032
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Department: means the Department of Children and Families. See Florida Statutes 63.032
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
(b) Recruiting adoption services specialist trainees, and providing a training program for such specialists.
(c) Operating a toll-free telephone number to provide information and referral services. The state adoption information center shall provide contact information for all adoption entities in the caller’s county or, if no adoption entities are located in the caller’s county, the number of the nearest adoption entity when contacted for a referral to make an adoption plan and shall rotate the order in which the names of adoption entities are provided to callers.
(d) Distributing pamphlets which provide information on the availability of adoption services.
(e) Promoting adoption through the communications media.
(f) Maintaining a list of licensed child-placing agencies eligible and willing to take custody of and place infants left at a hospital, pursuant to s. 383.50. The names and contact information for the licensed child-placing agencies on the list shall be provided on a rotating basis to the statewide central abuse hotline.
(3) The department shall ensure equitable distribution of referrals to licensed child-placing agencies.