§ 50-12-17 — Licensure requirement - Registration requirement - Penalty

1. A person may not place or cause to be placed any child in a family home for adoption
without a license to do so from the department of health and human services.
2. Adoption services may be provided by the department when a conflict of interest with a
child-placing agency exists and another child-placing agency is unable to provide the
service.
3. A parent, upon giving written notice to the department, may place the parent's child in
the home of the child's parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult brother or sister, adult
uncle or aunt, or guardian for adoption by the person receiving the child. The child
must be considered abandoned if proceedings for the adoption or guardianship of the
child are not initiated by such relative within one year following the date of notice of
placement.
4. A person who willfully violates this chapter is guilty of a class C felony.
5. For purposes of this section, "place or cause to be placed" means to:
a. Place a child for adoption;
b. Arrange or provide for short-term foster care for a child pending an adoptive
placement;
c. Facilitate placement of a child by maintaining a list in any form of birth parents or
prospective adoptive parents; or
d. Advertise in any public medium that the person knows of a child who is available
for adoption or is willing to accept a child for adoption or that the person knows of
prospective adoptive parents of a child.