HB0588_S_Cmte_Amend

SECTION 1. Section 43-15-117, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

43-15-117. (1) Except as provided in this article, no person, agency, firm, corporation, association or group children's home may engage in child placing, or solicit money or other assistance for child placing, without a valid license issued by the division.

(2) (a) An attorney, physician or other person may assist a parent in identifying or locating a person interested in adopting the parent's child, or in identifying or locating a child to be adopted. However, no payment, charge, fee, reimbursement of expense, or exchange of value of any kind, or promise or agreement to make the same, may be made for that assistance.

(b) An attorney, physician or other person may not:

(i) Issue or cause to be issued to any person a card, sign or device indicating that he or she is available to provide that assistance;

(ii) Cause, permit or allow any sign or marking indicating that he or she is available to provide that assistance, on or in any building or structure;

(iii) Announce or cause, permit or allow an announcement indicating that he or she is available to provide that assistance, to appear in any newspaper, magazine, directory or on radio or television; or

(iv) Advertise by any other means that he or she is available to provide that assistance.

(3) Nothing in this section precludes payment of usual and customary fees for medical, legal or other lawful services, including, but not limited to, living expenses and other defrayed living expenses, rendered in connection with the care of a mother, delivery and care of a child, or counseling for the parents and/or the child, and for the legal proceedings related to lawful adoption proceedings; and no provision of this section abrogates the right of procedures for independent adoption as provided by law.

(4) The division is specifically authorized to promulgate rules under the Administrative Procedures Law, Title 25, Chapter 43, Mississippi Code of 1972, to regulate fees charged by licensed child-placing agencies, if it determines that the practices of those licensed child-placing agencies demonstrates that the fees charged are excessive or that any of the agency's practices are deceptive or misleading; however, those rules regarding fees shall take into account the use of any sliding fee by an agency that uses a sliding fee procedure to permit prospective adoptive parents of varying income levels to utilize the services of those agencies or persons.

(5) The division shall promulgate rules under the Administrative Procedures Law, Title 25, Chapter 43, Mississippi Code of 1972, to require that all licensed child-placing agencies provide written disclosures to all prospective adoptive parents of any fees or other charges for each service performed by the agency or person, and file an annual report with the division that states the fees and charges for those services, and to require them to inform the division in writing thirty (30) days in advance of any proposed changes to the fees or charges for those services.

(6) The division is specifically authorized to disclose to prospective adoptive parents or other interested persons any fees charged by any licensed child-placing agency, attorney or counseling service or counselor for all legal and counseling services provided by that licensed child-placing agency, attorney

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2004.