(a)
(1) The Child Welfare Agency Review Board shall promulgate and publish rules setting minimum standards governing the granting, revocation, refusal, conversion, and suspension of licenses for a child welfare agency and the operation of a child welfare agency.
(2) The board may consult with such other agencies, organizations, or individuals as it shall deem proper.
(3)
(A) The board shall take any action necessary to prohibit any person, partnership, group, corporation, organization, or association not licensed or exempted from licensure pursuant to this subchapter from advertising, placing, planning for, or assisting in the placement of any unrelated minor for purposes of adoption or for care in a foster home.
(B) The prohibition against advertising shall not apply to persons who are seeking to add to their own family by adoption.
(b) The board may amend the rules promulgated pursuant to this section from time to time, in accordance with the rule promulgation procedures in the Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act, § 25-15-201 et seq.
(c)
(1) The board shall have exclusive authority to promulgate rules that:
(A) Promote the health, safety, and welfare of children in the care of a child welfare agency;
(B) Promote safe and healthy physical facilities;
(C) Ensure adequate supervision of the children by capable, qualified, and healthy individuals;
(D) Ensure appropriate educational programs and activities for children in the care of a child welfare agency;
(E) Ensure adequate and healthy food service;
(F) Include procedures for the receipt, recordation, and disposition of complaints regarding allegations of violations of this subchapter, of the rules promulgated under this subchapter, or of child maltreatment laws;
(G) Include procedures for the assessment of child and family needs and for the delivery of services designed to enable each child to grow and develop in a permanent family setting;
(H) Ensure that criminal record checks and central registry checks are completed on owners, operators, and employees of a child welfare agency as set forth in this subchapter;
(I) Require the compilation of reports and making those reports available to the Division of Youth Services when the board determines it is necessary for compliance determination or data compilation;
(J) Ensure that a child placement agency:
(i) Treats clients seeking or receiving services in a professional manner, as defined by rules promulgated pursuant to this section; and
(ii) Provides clients seeking or receiving services from a child placement agency that provides adoption services with the phone number and address of the Child Welfare Agency Licensing Unit of the Department of Human Services where complaints can be lodged;
(K) Require that all child welfare agencies that provide adoption services fully apprise in writing all clients involved in the process of adopting a child of the agency's adoption program or services, including all possible costs associated with the adoption program; and
(L) Establish rules governing retention of licensing records maintained by the Department of Human Services.
(2) This subchapter shall not be construed to prevent a licensed child welfare agency from adopting and applying internal operating procedures that meet or exceed the minimum standards required by the board.
(d)
(1) Provided that the health, safety, and welfare of children in the care of a child welfare agency are not endangered, nothing in this subchapter shall permit the board to promulgate or enforce any rule that has the effect of:
(A) Interfering with the religious teaching or instruction offered by a child welfare agency;
(B) Infringing upon the religious beliefs of the holder or holders of a child welfare agency license;
(C) Infringing upon the right of an agency operated by a religious organization to consider creed in any decision or action relating to admitting or declining to admit a child or family for services;
(D) Infringing upon the parent's right to consent to a child's participating in prayer or other religious practices while in the care of the child welfare agency; or
(E) Prohibiting the use of corporal discipline.
(2)
(A)
(i) A child welfare agency that articulates a sincerely held religious belief that is violated by a specific rule promulgated by the board shall notify the department in writing of the belief and the specific rule that violates the belief.
(ii) The rule shall be presumptively invalid as applied to that child welfare agency.
(B)
(i) The department may then file a petition before the board seeking to enforce the rule.
(ii) The department shall bear the burden of showing that the health, safety, or welfare of children would be endangered by the exemption, and if the board so finds by a preponderance of the evidence, the board shall render a finding of fact so concluding.
(e) The board shall issue all licenses to child welfare agencies upon majority vote of board members present during each properly called board meeting at which a quorum is present when the meeting is called to order.
(f)
(1)
(A) The board shall have the power to deny an application to operate a child welfare agency or revoke or suspend a previously issued license to operate a child welfare agency.
(B) The board may deny, suspend, convert, or revoke a child welfare agency license or issue letters of reprimand or caution to a child welfare agency if the board finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the applicant or licensee:
(i) Fails to comply with the provisions of this subchapter or any published rule of the board relating to child welfare agencies;
(ii) Furnishes or makes any statement or report to the department that is false or misleading;
(iii) Refuses or fails to submit required reports or to make available to the department any records required by it in making an investigation of the agency for licensing purposes;
(iv) Refuses or fails to submit to an investigation or to reasonable inspection by the department;
(v) Retaliates against an employee who in good faith reports a suspected violation of the provisions of this subchapter or the rules promulgated under this subchapter;
(vi) Fails to engage in a course of professional conduct in dealing with clients being served by the child placement agency, as defined by rules promulgated pursuant to this section;
(vii) Demonstrates gross negligence in carrying out the duties at the child placement agency; or
(viii) Fails to provide clients involved in the process of adoption of a child with correct and sufficient information pertaining to the adoption process, services, and costs.
(2) Any denial of application or revocation or suspension of a license shall be effective when made.
(g) The board shall review the qualifications of persons required to have background checks under this subchapter.
(h)
(1) The board or its designee may grant an agency's request for alternative compliance upon a finding that the child welfare agency does not meet the letter of a rule promulgated under this subchapter but that the child welfare agency meets or exceeds the intent of that rule through alternative means.
(2)
(A) If the board or its designee grants a request for alternative compliance, the child welfare agency's practice as described in the request for alternative compliance shall be the compliance terms under which the child welfare agency will be held responsible.
(B) The board or its designee may grant an agency's request for special consideration upon a finding that the request is in the best interest of the child or children or does not pose a risk to the persons served by the agency.
(C) Violations of those terms shall constitute a rule violation.
(i)
(1)
(A) The board shall have the authority to impose a civil penalty upon any person violating any provisions of this subchapter and any person assisting any partnership, group, corporation, organization, or association in violating any provisions of this subchapter, except that the imposition of civil penalties shall not apply to agencies that have been granted a church-operated exemption pursuant to this subchapter.
(B)
(i) The board may impose a civil penalty upon any person, partnership, group, corporation, organization, or association not licensed or exempt from licensure as a child welfare agency in the State of Arkansas pursuant to this subchapter that advertises, places, plans for, or assists in the placement of any unrelated minor for purposes of adoption or for care in a foster home.
(ii) The prohibition against advertising does not apply to persons who are seeking to add to their own family by adoption.
(2) The board shall have the discretion to impose a civil penalty pursuant to this section when the board determines by clear and convincing evidence that the person sought to be charged has violated this subchapter or the rules promulgated thereunder willfully, wantonly, or with conscious disregard for law or rule.
(3) The board may impose civil penalties as follows:
(A)
(i) Class A violations as defined in this subchapter shall be subject to a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500) for each violation, with each day of noncompliance constituting a separate violation.
(ii) In no event shall the board impose civil penalties of more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for Class A violations occurring in any one (1) calendar month; and
(B)
(i) Class B violations as defined in this subchapter shall be subject to a civil penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) for each violation with each day of noncompliance constituting a separate violation.
(ii) In no event shall the board impose civil penalties of more than five hundred dollars ($500) for Class B violations occurring in any one (1) calendar month.
(4) If any person upon whom the board has levied a civil penalty fails to pay the civil penalty within sixty (60) days of the board's decision to impose the penalty, the amount of the fine shall be considered to be a debt owed the State of Arkansas and may be collected by civil action by the Attorney General.
(j)
(1)
(A) The board shall notify the applicant or licensee of the department's petition for adverse action in writing and set forth the facts forming the basis for the request for the adverse action.
(B) This notice shall offer the licensee the opportunity for a predeprivation adverse action hearing to determine if the adverse action should be taken against the licensee or applicant.
(2) This section does not prevent the department or the board from closing a child welfare agency on an emergency basis if emergency closure is immediately required to protect the health, safety, or welfare of children, in which case the licensee shall be entitled to a post-deprivation adverse action hearing.
(k)
(1) Adverse action hearings shall comply with the Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act, § 25-15-201 et seq.
(2)
(A) Within ten (10) business days after rendering a decision, the board shall forward to the applicant or licensee written findings of fact and conclusions of law articulating the board's decision.
(B) The board shall also issue an order that the applicant or licensee cease and desist from the unlawful operation of a child welfare agency if the adverse action taken was revocation or suspension of the license or denial of an application.
(l)
(1) If, upon the filing of a petition for a judicial review, the reviewing court determines that there is a substantial possibility that the board's decision against the licensee or applicant may be reversed, the circuit court may enter a stay prohibiting enforcement of a decision of the board, provided that the court articulates the facts from the adverse action hearing record that constitute a substantial possibility of reversal.
(2)
(A) Thereafter, the court shall complete its review of the record and announce its decision within one hundred twenty (120) days of the entry of the stay.
(B) If the court does not issue its findings within one hundred twenty (120) days of the issuance of the stay, the stay shall be considered vacated.
(m) All rules promulgated under this section and all public comment received in writing by the department in response shall be made available for review by the Senate Interim Committee on Children and Youth and the Subcommittee on Children and Youth of the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, and by the Governor or his or her designee from among the Governor's staff.
(n)
(1)
(A) The validity or application of any rule promulgated by the board under authority of this subchapter shall be subject to remedies provided by law for obtaining declaratory judgments at the suit of any interested person instituted in the circuit court of any county in which the plaintiff resides or does business or in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
(B) However, the board must be named a party defendant and the board must be summoned as in an action by ordinary proceedings.
(2) If a juvenile is found to be maltreated due to the acts or omissions of a person other than the parent or guardian of the juvenile, the court may enter an order restraining or enjoining the person or facility employing that person from providing care, training, education, custody, or supervision of juveniles of whom the person or facility is not the parent or guardian.
(3)
(A) If the person or facility other than the parent or guardian of the juvenile found to be maltreated was not subject to this subchapter, the court may order the person or facility to obtain a license from the board as a condition precedent to the person’s or facility’s providing care, training, education, custody, or supervision of any juveniles of whom the person or facility is not the parent or guardian.
(B) If the court so orders, this subchapter shall thereafter apply to the person or facility subject to the court order.
(o)
(1) The department shall maintain a website accessible to the general public that contains information on child placement agencies.
(2) The website shall contain:
(A) The name, phone number, and address of all child placement agencies licensed by the board;
(B) Information on each child placement agency, specifically if the license is in good standing, if the license has ever been revoked or suspended, or if any letters of caution or reprimand have been issued by the board; and
(C) The name and contact information for a person in the unit who handles complaints about child placement agencies.