An agency which provides child welfare services shall:

1. Provide, to the extent that support is not otherwise required by court order or pursuant to specific statute, maintenance and special services to:

(a) Unmarried mothers and children awaiting adoptive placement.

(b) Children who are placed in the custody of the agency which provides child welfare services, and who are placed in foster homes, homes of relatives other than parents or other facilities or institutions. Except as otherwise provided by specific statute, if any child is to be placed in the custody of the agency which provides child welfare services, pursuant to any order of a court or request made by a person or agency other than the agency which provides child welfare services, this order or request may be issued or made only after an opportunity for a hearing has been given to the agency which provides child welfare services after 3 days’ notice, or upon request of the agency which provides child welfare services.

2. Except as otherwise provided by court order or specific statute, return a child to his or her natural home or the home of a competent relative for a probationary period any time after the expiration of 60 days after the placement of the child in the custody of the agency which provides child welfare services, with notification to but without formal application to a court, but the agency which provides child welfare services retains the right to custody of the child during the probationary period, until a court of competent jurisdiction determines proper custody of the child.

(Added to NRS by 1960, 327; A 1961, 360; 1963, 932; 1967, 1366; 1973, 458, 1612, 1633; 1977, 109; 1985, 1385; 1989, 1157; 1993, 2701; 2001 Special Session, 29)