Certified Case Manager Practice Test

Under the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), who retains court jurisdiction during cross-state placements?

1. The receiving state

2. The child's biological parents

3. The sending state

4. The federal government

The correct answer is: The sending state

Under the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), the sending state retains court jurisdiction during cross-state placements. This is a fundamental aspect of the ICPC, designed to ensure that children placed in another state continue to be protected under the laws and judicial oversight of their home state, where their case originated. The ICPC aims to establish cooperative procedures between states to facilitate the placement of children across state lines while ensuring that the welfare of the child remains a priority. By maintaining jurisdiction in the sending state, the legal processes related to custody, parental rights, and welfare remain consistent and are managed by the appropriate courts that are familiar with the child’s history and familial relationships. This arrangement helps minimize conflicts of laws and jurisdictional issues that could arise if both states attempted to assert authority over the same case. While other entities, such as the receiving state, might have their own laws regarding child placement, and biological parents have rights concerning custody, these do not negate the jurisdiction established by the sending state under the ICPC. The federal government does not play a direct role in ownership or jurisdiction of individual child cases governed by the ICPC.