Chapter 119

Section 1. It is hereby declared to be the policy of this commonwealth to direct its efforts, first, to the strengthening and encouragement of family life for the care and protection of children; to assist and encourage the use by any family of all available resources to this end…

Section 21. As used in sections 21 to 51H, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly otherwise requires:— ''51A report'', a report filed with the department under section 51A that details suspected child abuse or neglect. ''Advoc…

Section 21A. Evidence in proceedings under sections 21 to 51H, inclusive, shall be admissible according to the rules of the common law and the General Laws and may include reports to the court by any person who has made an investigation of the facts relating to the welfare of the…

Section 22. An agent of the department shall visit each family foster home, not supervised and approved by a licensed placement agency, at least once a year and may be authorized by the department to remove a child to its care if, in its judgment, the welfare of the child or its …

Section 23. (a) The department shall have the responsibility, including financial responsibility, for providing foster care for children through its own resources or by use of appropriate voluntary agencies, according to the rules and regulations of the department, in the followi…

Section 23A. Any child born to an inmate of the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham, or of the Industrial School for Girls at Lancaster, or of a jail or a house of correction, shall be accepted by the department, and any child whose mother is committed to the Massa…

Section 23B. The department may, through its own resources or the resources of other appropriate agencies, provide services to mothers bearing children out of wedlock.

Section 23C. (a) The department shall establish a foster parents' bill of rights, which shall be a policy governing the department's relationship with, and responsibilities to, foster parents. A copy of the foster parents' bill of rights shall be made publicly available on the de…

. Eligibility of child in custody to receive benefits

Section 24. A person may petition under oath the juvenile court alleging on behalf of a child within its jurisdiction that the child: (a) is without necessary and proper physical or educational care and discipline; (b) is growing up under conditions or circumstances damaging to t…

Section 25. The petition under section 24 may be heard on the merits when a child is taken into custody and brought before the court or may be continued to a time fixed for hearing. Pending the hearing on the merits, the court may allow the child to be placed in the care of some …

Section 26. (a) If the child is identified by the court and it appears that the precept and summonses have been duly and legally served, that notice has been issued to the department and the report of the person qualified under section 21A is received, the court may excuse the ch…

Section 26A. (a) As part of the department's licensing and background record check process, the department shall conduct fingerprint-based checks of the state and national criminal history databases for all applicants filing a request to become adoptive or foster parents as autho…

Section 26B. (a) Whenever a child is placed in family foster care, the court and the department shall ensure that a grandparent of a child who is in the department's care or is the subject of a petition under this chapter shall, upon that grandparent's request, have access to rea…

Section 26C. The department shall provide all children's foster care agencies acting as agents of the department and that employ foster care providers, a summary of the record of any such foster care provider's employment as a foster care provider as compiled by the department. S…

Section 26D. (a) The department may request that a foster or pre-adoptive parent applicant or a foster or pre-adoptive parent obtain and provide a copy of a behavior or temperament assessment or provide veterinary records for any animal maintained on premises used as a foster or …

Section 27. A child, parent, guardian or person appearing in behalf of such child, or the department, may appeal from the adjudication of the court and from any order of commitment made as a result of the adjudication under the provisions of section twenty-six to the appeals cour…

Section 28. (a) During the pendency of an action brought pursuant to section 24, temporary orders providing for the support of a child may be entered. The court may thereafter enter a judgment against the party chargeable with support. Any order of support entered under this sect…

Section 29. The following persons shall have and shall be informed of the right to counsel, and the court shall appoint counsel for all such persons if the person is not able to retain counsel: (i) an adult who is under the responsibility of the department under clause (1) of sub…

Section 29A. The parents of an unemancipated minor shall be liable for such reasonable legal fees and expenses of an attorney representing the minor in criminal proceedings. Except where the parent is the alleged victim, the court shall determine whether the parent or guardian of…

Section 29B. (a) Except as provided in subsection (d), within 12 months of the original commitment, grant of custody or transfer of responsibility of a child to the department by a court of competent jurisdiction and not less than every 12 months thereafter while the child remain…

Section 29C. If a court of competent jurisdiction commits, grants custody or transfers responsibility for a child to the department or its agent, the court shall certify that the continuation of the child in his home is contrary to his best interests and shall determine whether t…

Section 29D. The department shall provide notice of hearings held under sections 26, 29B and 39G to a foster parent, pre-adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child who is the subject of the petition and shall inform the foster parent, pre-adoptive parent or relative…

Section 32. Children in the care or custody of the department shall be placed in private families; provided, that any child who upon examination is found to be in need of special care, treatment or education may, if it is found by the department to be in the best interest of the …

Section 33. In placing a child in family home care, the department, or any private charitable or child-care agency, shall consider all factors relevant to the child's physical, mental and moral health.

[There is no 119:33A.]

Section 33B. At the time of placing a child in family home care, but in any event no later that five working days following such placement, the department or any other child-care agency shall determine whether the child has been adjudicated delinquent for a sexual offense or the …

Section 33C. (a) A congregate care program under contract to provide foster care to children in the care or custody of the department shall ensure that not less than 1 individual be present on-site who, with respect to any child placed at the congregate care program, is designate…

Section 34. A child involved in any proceeding shall not be transported in a patrol wagon from his home or from any other place to any court or institution, but if a conveyance is necessary shall convey him in such other suitable vehicle as shall be provided or designated by the …

Section 35. If the parent or guardian of a child placed in charge of any person, association or public or private institution by any state department, town board, or by any public or private corporation or body of persons authorized by law to so place children, or if one of the n…

Section 36. No person or institution shall bring or cause to be brought into the commonwealth, or receive therein, from any other state, province or country, any child for the purpose of placing or boarding, or of procuring the placing or boarding of such child, in a family or ho…

Section 37. The department shall make rules and regulations concerning the administration of its duties.

Section 38. All hearings under sections 1 to 38A, inclusive, except those related to court orders to not resuscitate or to withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment for children in the custody of the department under a care and protection order, shall be closed to the general pu…

Section 38A. In any proceedings related to court orders to not resuscitate or to withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment, the department or the party petitioning for the order shall require: (i) a written opinion from the child's treating physician, (ii) a written recommendati…

Section 39. Whoever abandons an infant under the age of ten within or without any building, or, being its parent, or being under a legal duty to care for it, and having made a contract for its board or maintenance, absconds or fails to perform such contract, and for four weeks af…

Section 39D. If the parents of an unmarried minor child are divorced, married but living apart, under a temporary order or judgment of separate support, or if either or both parents are deceased, or if said unmarried minor child was born out of wedlock whose paternity has been ad…

Section 39E. The divisions of the juvenile court department may receive and hear requests for assistance stating that there is a child requiring assistance or a family requiring assistance as defined in section twenty-one, in accordance with the provisions of this section and of …

Section 39F. When an application for assistance stating the a child and family are in need of assistance is initiated the child shall be informed that he has a right to counsel at all hearings, and if said child is not able to retain counsel, the court shall appoint counsel for s…

Section 39G. At any hearing to determine whether a child and family require assistance, said child and the child's attorney shall be present and the parent, legal guardian or custodian shall be given an opportunity to be heard. The petitioner and any party may file a motion to di…

Section 39H. A child may be taken into custodial protection for engaging in the behavior described in the definition of ''Child requiring assistance'' in section 21, only if such child has failed to obey a summons issued pursuant to section thirty-nine E, or if the law enforcemen…

Section 39I. A child, parent, legal guardian or custodian may appeal from any order or determination, whether final or not final, made under sections 39E to 39H, inclusive. Pending the appeal, the juvenile court shall retain jurisdiction and may enter any order under this chapter…

Section 39K. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department of children and families, in collaboration with the department of mental health and other appropriate state agencies, shall: (i) provide for the child welfare services needs of sexually ex…

Section 39L. (a) Before or after arraignment in any juvenile delinquency or criminal proceeding against a sexually exploited child alleging that such juvenile or such defendant violated the prohibition against common night walking or common streetwalking under section 53 of chapt…

Section 39M. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:- ''Child'', an unmarried person under the age of 21. ''Dependent on the court'', subject to the jurisdiction of a court competen…

Section 51A. (a) A mandated reporter shall immediately communicate with the department orally and shall, within 48 hours, file a written report with the department detailing suspected abuse or neglect if, in their professional capacity, they have reasonable cause to believe that …

Section 51B. (a) Upon receipt of a report filed under section 51A, the department shall investigate the suspected child abuse or neglect, provide a written evaluation of the household of the child, including the parents and home environment and make a written determination relati…

Section 51C. If a parent or other person requests the release from a hospital of a child reported pursuant to section fifty-one A, the presiding judge of the juvenile court of the judicial district in which such hospital is located may, if he believes such release would be detrim…

Section 51D. Each area director of the department shall be responsible for implementing subsection (k) of section 51B. Each area director shall, in cooperation with the appropriate district attorney, establish 1 or more multi-disciplinary service teams to review the provision of …

Section 51E. The department shall maintain a file of the written reports prepared under this section and sections 51A to 51D, inclusive. These written reports shall be confidential. Upon request and with the approval of the commissioner, copies of written reports of initial inves…

Section 51F. The department shall maintain a central registry of information sufficient to identify children whose names are reported under sections 51A to 51B. Data and information relating to individual cases in the central registry shall be confidential and shall be made avail…