§ 4903. Responsibility of Department

The Department may expend, within amounts available for the purposes, what is necessary to protect and promote the welfare of children and adults in this State, including the strengthening of their homes whenever possible, by:

(1) Investigating complaints of neglect, abuse, or abandonment of children.

(2) Providing aid and services to the extent necessary for the purpose of permitting children to remain in their own homes.

(3) Supervising and controlling children committed to it by a court.

(4) Providing substitute parental care and custody for a child upon application of his or her parent, guardian, or any person acting in behalf of the child, when after investigation it is found that the care and custody will be in the best interest of the child. The acceptance of a child by the Department shall not abrogate parental rights or responsibilities, but the Department may accept from the parents temporary delegation of certain rights and responsibilities necessary to provide care and custody for a period of up to six months under conditions agreed upon by the parents and the Department. Upon a stipulation approved by the Juvenile Court, the period may be extended for additional periods of up to six months each, provided that each extension is first determined by the parties to be necessary, and that it is in the best interest of the child.

(5) Providing financial aid to persons who were committed to the Department at the time they attained the age of majority and who are completing an educational, vocational, or technical training program designed to equip them for gainful employment.

(6) Providing aid to certain adopted children who prior to their adoption were in the care and custody of the Department.

(7) Providing aid to a child in the permanent guardianship of a relative if the child was in the care and custody of the Department and was placed in the home of the relative for at least six months prior to the creation of the guardianship. (Added 1967, No. 147, § 5; amended 1971, No. 206 (Adj. Sess.); 1975, No. 19; 1981, No. 243 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2005, No. 174 (Adj. Sess.), § 119; 2009, No. 97 (Adj. Sess.), § 2.)