Louisiana Children’s Code 1626 – Jurisdiction
Terms Used In Louisiana Children's Code 1626
- Child: means an individual who has not attained the age of eighteen. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Indian tribe: means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for services provided to Indians by the Secretary of the Interior because of their status as Indians, including any Alaskan native village as defined in Section 3(C) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act at Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Jurisdiction: means the power and authority of a court to hear and decide matters. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Placement: means the act by a public or private child placing agency intended to arrange for the care or custody of a child in another state. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Public child placing agency: means any government child welfare agency or child protection agency or a private entity under contract with such an agency, regardless of whether they act on behalf of a state, county, municipality or other governmental unit and which facilitates, causes, or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to another. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Receiving state: means the state to which a child is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Sending state: means the state from which the placement of a child is initiated. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas Islands, and any other territory of the United States. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- State court: means a judicial body of a state that is vested by law with responsibility for adjudicating cases involving abuse, neglect, deprivation, delinquency or status offenses of individuals who have not attained the age of eighteen. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
NOTE: Art. 1626 enacted by Acts 2010, No. 893, §1, eff. when the 35th state enacts the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children.
A. Except as provided in Paragraph H of this Article, and Article 1627(B)(2) and (3) concerning private and independent adoptions, and in interstate placements in which the public child placing agency is not a party to a custody proceeding, the sending state shall retain jurisdiction over a child with respect to all matters of custody and disposition of the child which it would have had if the child had remained in the sending state. Jurisdiction shall also include the power to order the return of the child to the sending state.
B. When an issue of child protection or custody is brought before a court in the receiving state, such court shall confer with the court of the sending state to determine the most appropriate forum for adjudication.
C. In cases subject to this compact, the taking of testimony for hearings before any judicial officer may occur in person or by telephone, audio-video conference, or such other means as approved by the rules of the Interstate Commission, and judicial officers may communicate with other judicial officers and persons involved in the interstate process as may be permitted by their Canons of Judicial Conduct and any rules promulgated by the Interstate Commission.
D. In accordance with its own laws, the court in the sending state shall have authority to terminate its jurisdiction if any of the following occur:
(1) The child is reunified with the parent in the receiving state who is the subject of allegations or findings of abuse or neglect, only with the concurrence of the public child placing agency in the receiving state.
(2) The child is adopted.
(3) The child reaches the age of majority.
(4) The child achieves legal independence pursuant to the laws of the sending state.
(5) A guardianship is created by a court in the receiving state with the concurrence of the court in the sending state.
(6) An Indian tribe has petitioned for and received jurisdiction from the court in the sending state.
(7) The public child placing agency of the sending state requests termination and has obtained the concurrence of the public child placing agency in the receiving state.
E. When a sending state court terminates its jurisdiction, the receiving state child placing agency shall be notified.
F. Nothing in this Article shall defeat a claim of jurisdiction by a receiving state court sufficient to deal with an act of truancy, delinquency, crime, or behavior involving a child as defined by the laws of the receiving state committed by the child in the receiving state which may be a violation of its laws.
G. Nothing in this Article shall limit the receiving state’s ability to take emergency jurisdiction for the protection of the child.
H. The substantive laws of the state in which an adoption will be finalized shall solely govern all issues relating to the adoption of the child and the court in which the adoption proceeding is filed shall have subject matter jurisdiction regarding all substantive issues relating to the adoption, except when any of the following exists:
(1) The child is a ward of another court that established jurisdiction over the child prior to the placement.
(2) The child is in the legal custody of a public agency in the sending state.
(3) A court in the sending state has otherwise appropriately assumed jurisdiction over the child, prior to the submission of the request for approval of placement.
I. A final decree of adoption shall not be entered in any jurisdiction until the placement is authorized as an “approved placement” by the public child placing agency in the receiving state.
Acts 2010, No. 893, §1.