Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced today, Tuesday, signed a bill that amends the adoption law to expand the adoption task force and organize periodic meetings between the Department of Family and nonprofits. for-profit, public or private, that promote the adoption of minors in Puerto Rico, among other measures.
The measure, which was unanimously approved by the House and Senate, provides for the inclusion of a representative of the judiciary in the adoption task force, in addition to a representative from the Puerto Rico Association of Social Work Professionals, and a representative from the Justice Department.
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“This law promotes the streamlining of adoption processes and the integration of professionals, organizations, individuals and governmental agencies aimed at improving the quality of children and young people awaiting adoption,” said the Governor of the measure proposed by Deputy Jacqueline Rodríguez Hernández.
It also includes a term for the Family and Health Departments to prepare the voluntary delivery label to distribute to all health facilities in Puerto Rico, and to set administrative fines for failure to comply with various provisions.
It also provides for the Department of Family to publicly convene every six months all organizations promoting the adoption of minors to a working meeting to discuss, review and propose changes to the Department’s adoption efforts. laws pertaining to adoption, promotion of integrated efforts to expedite the adoption of minors, and all other related matters.
The Department of the Family has an electronic registry called “Puerto Rico Voluntary State Registration for Adoption”, which lists all the names of the minors whose sustainability plan is the adoption, and of the adopters with updated information and required to identify them, as required by regulation.
Once a candidate has applied for the aforementioned registry, he or she does not need to update the documents originally submitted and accepted by the Family Department until the Candidate Selection Panel begins to review their application with a view to establishing a placement. The fact that an applicant does not have the updated documents will not be a reason for their disqualification.
The ordinary meetings of the aforementioned panel will be held consecutively every two weeks and may call extraordinary meetings if necessary. Meetings can be held in person or by videoconference by any technological means.
The measure was included by the governor in the last Extraordinary Session, after in the month of November in the symposium ‘Adoption: Gift of Love’, held by the Lower House, a group of recognized experts on herself. In the group were Dr. Caly Rodríguez de Rivera-Dueño, former Secretary of the Ministry of Family under the administration of Pedro Rosselló González, Lcda. María Ortiz, prominent litigant in adoption and family matters, and Lcda. Diana Cordero, an adoptive mother.