Moving a Child Across State Lines for Placement

A child in state custody in one state and a grandmother in another look like a simple arrangement. It is not. An interstate compact, enacted as statute in every state, controls the crossing, and it is written so that the movement is the last step rather than the first.

What the compact is

The compact is not an agency policy or a federal regulation. Each state has passed it as legislation, adopting a common text that operates as that state's own law. That is why its provisions read like a statute and are enforceable as one, and why a violation is described in the text as a violation of the placement laws of both states involved.

Two roles structure everything. The sending agency is the party proposing to place the child: a public child welfare agency, a court, an adoption entity, or in some circumstances a private person. The receiving state's public authorities are the officials who assess the proposed placement and answer.

Administration runs through a compact administrator in each state, with a national association of those administrators maintaining shared operating rules and forms. The mechanism is deliberately centralized so that a caseworker in one state does not have to identify the correct counterpart in another.

The notice that starts the process

Before sending, bringing or causing a child to be brought into a receiving state for placement in foster care or as a preliminary to a possible adoption, the sending agency must furnish written notice of the intention to the appropriate public authorities in the receiving state.

The compact text specifies the contents. The notice must give the child's name, date and place of birth; the identity and address of the parents or legal guardian; the name and address of the person, agency or institution with which the placement is proposed; and a full statement of the reasons for the proposed action together with evidence of the authority under which it would be made.

The receiving state may then request supporting or additional information from the sending agency or from any appropriate officer in the sending state, and is entitled to receive it. In practice this is where a home study of the proposed placement resource is prepared or reviewed, on the standards described in what the study covers and who conducts it.

The penalty for moving early

The compact contains its own enforcement article. Sending or bringing a child into a receiving state in violation of the compact constitutes a violation of the placement laws of both the state where the sending agency is located and the receiving state, and may be punished or penalized in either jurisdiction according to its laws.

The text adds a separate consequence aimed at agencies: a violation is full and sufficient grounds for suspension or revocation of any license, permit or other legal authorization that empowers the sending agency to place or care for children.

For a family, the practical consequences are usually different in kind. An adoption petition built on an unapproved placement can be delayed while the compact process runs, the receiving state may decline to license the placement resource, and the sending agency may be directed to return the child while approval is sought.

Jurisdiction and money after the move

The compact keeps authority with the sending agency. It retains jurisdiction over the child sufficient to determine all matters relating to custody, supervision, care, treatment and disposition of the child, to the same extent as if the child had remained in the sending state, until the child is adopted, reaches majority, becomes self-supporting, or is discharged with the concurrence of the receiving state's authorities.

Financial responsibility follows the same logic. The sending agency or the person or entity that made the placement remains responsible for the child's support and maintenance during the placement, and the compact expressly provides that placement in the receiving state does not shift that obligation to the receiving state.

Supervision is usually the receiving state's task under an arrangement between the two, with reports going back to the sending agency and to the court with jurisdiction. Where the placement leads to an adoption, the finalization ordinarily occurs in the state with jurisdiction over the case, and the resulting decree is entitled to recognition elsewhere.

What falls outside the requirement

The compact text exempts placements made by a parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult sibling, adult uncle or aunt, or guardian, where the child is left with one of those relatives. It also excludes placements into certain medical and educational institutions.

Timing questions arise at the edges. A family vacationing across a state line with a foster child is not making a placement, and a child visiting a relative for a weekend is not either. What triggers the requirement is a placement — an arrangement for the child to live in the receiving state under an agency's or a court's authority — rather than the child's physical presence. Where the intended arrangement is indefinite, compact administrators treat it as a placement whatever it is called.

Compact administrators read these exemptions narrowly, and the fact that a relative is involved does not by itself remove the requirement. Where a court or agency directs the placement, or where the child is in state custody, clearance is generally required even though a relative is receiving the child. Independent adoptions and placements arranged through an adoption entity are covered.

Where the child moves to a family the state has already approved and no boundary is crossed, none of this applies and the case follows the ordinary route: consent or termination, then the petition. Those steps are described in the consent and revocation rules and the standard for involuntary termination. Where the receiving family is a stepparent or close relative in the same state, the simplified route in relative and stepparent adoption may be available instead.