A chain of events begins when an approved location receives a surrendered infant. However, approved location staff must wait until the parent/agent leaves the location before notifications are made. The infant is taken to a doctor for an examination to make sure they are healthy and unharmed. The approved location arranges transportation to the nearest medical facility, which is usually a non-emergency ambulance call. However, if the infant appears injured or in distress, call 911.
The child protection services must be called to care for the infant while they look for a safe and permanent home. When infants have been abandoned at a hospital and there is information available, such as the names of other relatives, child protection services will contact them first to see if they can provide a permanent home for the infant.
However, by law, the child protection services agency cannot contact or try to find the parent or the person who surrendered the infant.
If there are no suitable or willing relatives to adopt the infant, the child protection services will look for a permanent adoptive family. Child Protection Services will schedule a court hearing to terminate the legal right of both parents so the infant can be adopted. Notice of these hearings is published on the court’s website (https://www.ndcourts.gov/publications) or in the county’s newspaper. When parental rights are terminated, birth parents will no longer be considered the infant’s parent. That means they will not be able to make decisions about the infant and the infant can be adopted.
