NCJ Number
147061
Date Published
1993
Length
33 pages
Annotation
The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) is analyzed in terms of its applicability, in situations involving legal separation, divorce, and other circumstances, to parents who have not perpetrated child abuse or neglect and have not been found incompetent to meet the needs of the child.
Abstract
The discussion notes that where no formal charges have been brought and adjudicated, it is presumed that the parent is nonoffending. In determining whether the parent is nonoffending, it is important to assess whether the parent has met affirmative responsibilities as well as obligations to refrain from certain kinds of actions. In some cases, a parent has left the child in a custodial situation and has been out of contact with the child for an extended period of time. Court activity is almost always involved to determine what should be done with the child. A parent can be held to have abandoned the child; abandonment is a form of neglect. Although the appellate court decision in McComb v. Wambaugh held ICPC inapplicable to placements with parents, whether offending or nonoffending, the Compact Administrators Association considers this decision to be unsound. Additional papers on the definition of a visit, relocation of foster parents with their foster children, termination of interstate placements, and related topics