§ 372-b. Adoption services. 1. a. A prospective adoptive parent shall
have a right to a fair hearing pursuant to section twenty-two of this
chapter concerning the failure of a social services official to provide
adoption services authorized to be provided pursuant to this section and
the state's consolidated services plan. At the time a child is placed
in a prospective adoptive home, the prospective adoptive parent shall be
notified in writing of his or her right to such fair hearing.

b. Each social services official shall provide, either directly or
through purchase of service, adoption services for each child in their
care who is freed for adoption. Such adoption services shall include
the evaluation of a child's placement needs and pre-placement planning,
recruitment of and homestudy for prospective adoptive parents, training
of adoptive parents, placement planning, supervision and post adoption
services.

2. The department shall promulgate regulations which shall require
that adoption services be made available to all children who are listed
with the New York state adoption service. Such regulations shall also
provide for cooperation between local social services commissioners, and
for apportioning reimbursement for adoption services where more than one
agency or social services district has provided such services for a
child.

2-a. The department shall promulgate regulations requiring all
adoption agencies to forward names and addresses of all persons who have
applied for adoption of a hard-to-place or handicapped child, as defined
in section four hundred fifty-one of this chapter. A list of such names
and addresses shall be maintained by the department and made available,
without charge, to every agency in the state to assist them in placing
such children for adoption.

3. The department shall promulgate regulations to maintain
enlightened adoption policies and to establish standards and criteria
for adoption practices.