P.R. Laws tit. 8, § 444a
The Department shall be responsible for promoting the comprehensive wellbeing and protection of minors through child abuse prevention programs and through support services for families.
The Department shall also be responsible for investigating and attending to situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect. Likewise, it shall be responsible for instituting programs for the prevention, identification, investigation, and provision of the necessary services, pursuant to the public policy established in this chapter and the needs of minors and their families in any situation of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect. To this end, the Department is authorized to adopt the necessary guidelines, procedures, rules, and/or regulations to implement the public policy set forth in this chapter and to fulfill the responsibilities delegated hereby.
The Department shall investigate, order or refer for investigation referrals of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect, making use, for this purpose, of all procedures, services, and means required to guarantee the most expeditious and effective attention to such investigations.
Whenever the Department of the Family is the custodian and relations between siblings have not been restricted or prohibited, the Department shall have the responsibility of organizing and establishing a visitation plan so that siblings who have been removed from their homes may be able to interact at least twice (2) a month, seeking to place them together whenever possible. The Department of the Family shall be bound to guarantee that physical custodians comply with all the duties and obligations set forth in the plan.
History —Aug. 1, 2003, No. 177, § 4; Aug. 10, 2009, No. 63, § 1.