County Board consists of seven persons, who are appointed for six-year
terms, with the exception of the County Commissioner member, who is
designated each year by the Board of County Commissioners.

The duties of the State Department include the supervision of all public
and private institutions having the care, custody, or control of dependent,
delinquent, abandoned or neglected children; the investigation of the sys-
tem of public and private institutions, organizations and agencies of a
charitable nature in the State, including those which receive part of their
income from the State, except those placed by law under the supervision
of another State agency; and furnishing to the Governor, prior to the con-
vening of each regular session of the General Assembly, a report of its activi-
ties and of the condition of all charitable institutions, organizations and
agencies, including hospitals, receiving financial aid from the State, and
making recommendations as to appropriations for them..'all monies appro-
priated to them to be paid on a per capita basis at the rates and subject to
the rules and regulations established by the State Board of Public Welfare.

The State Department is empowered to adopt rules and regulations neces-
sary to carry out its duties; to issue licenses to institutions, agencies, societies
and individuals having the care, custody, and control of children (with cer-
tain exceptions), and to revoke the same, subject to appeal; to license any
person or institution maintaining a home in which two or more persons
beyond the age of 65 shall be cared for and for which a charge is made, ex-
cept with respect to persons caring for relatives; and it is the official rep-
resentative of the State in regard to charitable matters and has the admin-
istration of the laws regarding the placement of children in this State by
out-of-State agencies, and the supervision of the law prohibiting the separa-
tion of infants from their mothers during the first six months after birth.

Chapter 797 of the Acts of 1943 provides for a Bureau of Child Welfare
in the State Department of Public Welfare, having responsibility for in-
suring proper standards of child care for all children in need thereof, and for a
Division of Institutions within the Bureau. Provision is made for the ap-
pointment of personnel under the State Merit System. Through this Bureau,
the Department is responsible for the supervision, direction and control of
the four training schools. The State Department is directed to establish by
rules and regulations, standards of care, policies of admission, transfer and
discharge, to order desirable changes in the policies, conduct or management
of the institutions, and to develop a program within each training school,
including provision for after-care supervision. Subject to limitations in
the new law, each of the institutions is to remain, under the general man-
agement of its Board of Managers.

Chapter 818 of the Acts of 1943 vests in the Circuit Court of Baltimore
City jurisdiction in juvenile and related causes in Baltimore City, and
directs the Judge of that Court, if he determines that a child is in need of
care or treatment by reason of dependency or neglect, to commit the child
to the State Department, which is given sole power to decide the type of
care or treatment to be given. In those cases in which the child is deter-
mined to be in need of care or treatment for other reasons, the Judge is
given discretion to commit the child to the State Department for such place-
ment as it believes to be for the best interests of the child. The State De-
partment has the sole power to determine the length of time during the
minority of the child during which any commitment to it by the Judge
shall continue, but must report semi-annually to the Judge on each child
committed to it.