232.119 Adoption exchange established.

1. The purpose of this section is to facilitate the placement of all children in Iowa who are legally available for adoption through the establishment of an adoption exchange to help find adoptive homes for these children.

2. An adoption information exchange is established within the department to be operated by the department or by an individual or agency under contract with the department.

a. All special needs children under state guardianship shall be registered on the adoption exchange within sixty days of the termination of parental rights pursuant to section 232.117 or 600A.9 and assignment of guardianship to the director.

b. Prospective adoptive families requesting a special needs child shall be registered on the adoption exchange upon receipt of an approved home study.

3. To register a child on the Iowa exchange, the department adoption worker or the private agency worker shall register the pertinent information concerning the child on the exchange. A photograph of the child and other necessary information shall be forwarded to the department to be included in the photo-listing book which shall be updated regularly. The department adoption worker or the private agency worker who places a child on the exchange shall update the registration information within ten working days after a change in the information occurs.

4. The exchange shall include a matching service for children registered or listed in the adoption photo-listing book and prospective adoptive families listed on the exchange. The department shall register a child with the national electronic exchange and electronic photo-listing system if the child has not been placed for adoption after three months on the exchange established pursuant to this section.

5. A request to defer registering the child on the exchange shall be submitted in writing and shall be granted if any of the following conditions exist:

a. The child is in an adoptive placement.

b. The child’s foster parents or another person with a significant relationship is being considered as the adoptive family.

c. A diagnostic study or testing is necessary to clarify the child’s needs and to provide an adequate description of the child’s needs.

d. At the time of the request, the child is receiving medical care, mental health treatment, or other treatment and the child’s care or treatment provider has determined that meeting prospective adoptive parents is not in the child’s best interest.

e. The child is fourteen years of age or older and will not consent to an adoption plan and the consequences of not being adopted have been explained to the child.

6. The following requirements apply to a request to defer registering a child on the adoption exchange under subsection 5:

a. For a deferral granted by the exchange pursuant to subsection 5, paragraph “a”, “b”, or “e”, the child’s guardian shall address the child’s deferral status in the report filed with the court and the court shall review the deferral status in the six-month review hearings held pursuant to section 232.117, subsection 7.

b. In addition to the requirements of paragraph “a”, a deferral granted by the exchange pursuant to subsection 5, paragraph “b”, shall be limited to not more than a one-time, ninety-day period unless the termination of parental rights order is appealed or the child is placed in a hospital or other institutional placement. However, if the foster parents or another person with a significant relationship continues to be considered the child’s prospective adoptive family, additional extensions of the deferral request under subsection 5, paragraph “b”, may be granted until sixty days after the date of the final decision regarding the appeal or until the date the child is discharged from a hospital or other institutional placement.

c. A deferral granted by the exchange pursuant to subsection 5, paragraph “c”, shall be limited to not more than a one-time, ninety-day period.

d. A deferral granted by the exchange pursuant to subsection 5, paragraph “d”, shall be limited to not more than a one-time, one-hundred-twenty-day period.

87 Acts, ch 159, §8; 91 Acts, ch 232, §9, 10; 93 Acts, ch 22, §1; 95 Acts, ch 182, §12; 98 Acts, ch 1190, §26; 2015 Acts, ch 29, §34