2009 Rhode Island Code
Title 14 - Delinquent and Dependent Children
CHAPTER 14-4 - O'Rourke Children's Center
§ 14-4-3 - Purposes of chapter – Placement of children in institutions or homes – Guardianship and control.

SECTION 14-4-3

   § 14-4-3  Purposes of chapter – Placement of children in institutions or homes – Guardianship and control. – (a) It is declared to be the object of this chapter to provide for neglected and dependent children, not recognized as vicious or criminal, any influences that will lead toward an honest, intelligent, and self-supporting manhood and womanhood, the state, so far as possible, holding to them the parental relation. But if at any time, in the discretion of the director of children, youth, and families, this object can be better attained by placing a child in a good family of the same religious belief as the parents of the child, the director shall have the power to do so on condition that the child's education shall be provided for by that family in the public schools of the town or city where they may reside, or in some other suitable public school or private school; and whenever that course is desirable or necessary, the department of children, youth, and families may pay any amount that may be agreed upon for the care and support of the child.

   (b) The director may in his or her discretion place any child requiring special treatment, training, or oversight in any institution, controlled by persons of the same religious belief as the parents of the child, providing that special treatment, training, or oversight, and may pay any amount that may be agreed upon for the care and support of the child.

   (c) The director is the legal guardian of all children entrusted to his or her control and charged with the duty of following any children that may be placed in families or institutions with watchful care, and of taking those children back to his or her immediate supervision at any time when in his or her judgment the welfare of the children requires that action. In case any child shall leave without permission or is taken by any unauthorized person from the children's center or from any family or any institution where it shall have been placed by the director, then the director is authorized to take and restore the child to the children's center or to the family or to the institution.

   (d) In case of any medical emergency arising with respect to any child entrusted to the control and custody of the director, he or she shall have the power to authorize medical treatment for the child, provided notice is given to him or her by any duly-licensed physician or dentist that a medical emergency exists and treatment is immediately necessary for the health of the child involved. In the event the parents of the child are immediately available and legally competent to give consent to any treatment, the director shall take all reasonable means to seek their approval for medical treatment to be rendered.