Upon giving birth, the responsible person shall provide to the natural parents a voluntary declaration of paternity. The hospital staff shall witness the signing and shall forward the signed declaration to the Department of Child Support Services. A copy of the declaration shall be made available to parents. No health care provider shall be subject to any civil, criminal, or administrative liability for any negligent act relative to the accuracy of the information provided.
Where a wife is inseminated artificially with semen donated by a man other than her husband, the physician and surgeon must retain the husband's consent form as part of the medical record. The record must be kept confidential and in a sealed file. However, the physician and surgeon's failure to do so does not affect the father and child relationship. All papers and records pertaining to the insemination, whether part of the permanent record of a court or of a file held by the supervising physician and surgeon or elsewhere, are subject to inspection only through a court order.
A proceeding to have a minor child declared free from the custody and control of either or both parents, may be brought in cases where a child's parents are mentally disabled and are likely to remain so in the foreseeable future. The finding requires evidence of two experts, each of whom shall be a physician, surgeon and a licensed psychologist.
State Department of Social Services shall investigate any threat to the health and safety of children placed by social services agency in an out-of-state group home. This authority shall include the authority to interview children or staff in private or review their file. Participants in multidisciplinary team responsible to obtain an assessment and placement recommendation for each child shall have knowledge or experience in the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect cases, and shall be qualified to recommend services related to child abuse.
