Posted by John Coomer, Practice Administrator
To help parents and guardians who need to leave a child in the care of another adult, we have created a form consistent with the Arizona Revised Statute (A.R.S. 14-5104) which states: A parent or a guardian of a minor or incapacitated person, by a properly executed power of attorney, may delegate to another person, for a period not exceeding six months, any powers he may have regarding care, custody or property of the minor child or ward, except power to consent to marriage or adoption of the minor. This new form can be found on the Other Forms page (http://www.ponderosapediatrics.com/forms/other-forms/). For the Power of Attorney form, click here.
We’ve also added a simple Revocation of Power of Attorney in case the parent/legal guardian want to remove these rights (Click here for the form). Power of Attorney is the simplest way for a parent to authorize others parental rights and responsibilities. Per law, the maximum period this can be valid is six months, so if the expiration date is left blank, we assume the maximum legal period of six months. If the parent wants to extend this for a longer period, a new form must be completed for every six month period.
This does not relieve parents from their legal responsibilities, nor does it assign those responsibilities to the person designated. It is designed to allow parents to leave their children in the care of others for a period of up to six months. Other documents, typically associated with Superior Court proceedings, can authorize temporary or permanent guardianship or custody. Adoption is typically done through the court system as well.
We see this form helping in a variety of situations, but we are not experts in family law, so consult a lawyer if you have questions. Here are a few of the scenarios we see:
1. Parents are taking a vacation for a few days or weeks and are leaving children in the care of a friend or family member. (Copays, payments for service and coinsurance still need to be paid at the time of service, so parents need to ensure methods of payment in the event services are needed.)
2. Parents have personal medical, emotional or other reasons that they cannot fulfill responsibilities for a short period of time and ask for family or friends to help. Unfortunately, we see this when parents separate and their ill feelings toward each other impact their influence on children or they cannot functions. Other reasons are substance abuse programs or mental health in patient programs. As long as the person granted Power of Attorney is a competent adult and consents, this can be used for up to six months.
3. Separation due to incarceration. If the parent in prison or jail for up to six months, this form can be used. Recently, we received a Yavapai County Jail form for a baby whose mother was in jail at the time of birth. If parents are incarcerated for extended periods, temporary or permanent guardianship or custody through the court system is advised.
As we learn more, we’ll attempt to provide processes and forms to help. For instance, as we understand Arizona law, step parents have no rights for their step children, and to permit step parents decision making ability, both birth parents need to consent. We know this can be problematic in cases where the step parent is not liked or trusted by the other parent
Our job is to take of and protect children to the best of our ability and consistent with the law. We only ask questions and look for authorization for that purpose, not to be troublesome! If you have ideas, forms, resources or other thoughts you’d like to share, please let us know through Facebook comments or blog article responses. Please do not disclose protected health information if you make any type of public post! Thanks.
