2148

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 778

BY adding to

Article 89C - Support of Dependents

Section 33A

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1969 Replacement Volume and 1975 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That Sections 3(a) and (b), 5A, 13(c), and 48
of Article 88A — Social Services Administration, of the
Annotated Code of Maryland (1969 Replacement Volume and
1975 Supplement) be and they are hereby repealed and
reenacted, with amendments, to read as follows:

Article 88A — Social Services Administration

3.

(a) (1) The State [Department] ADMINISTRATION
shall be the central[, ] coordinating and directing agency
of all social service and public assistance activities in
this State, including aid to families with dependent
children, general public assistance, public assistance to
adults, child welfare services, food stamps, CHILD
SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT, and any other social service and
public assistance activities financed in whole or in part
by the State [Department]. ADMINISTRATION. For the
purposes of these powers, child welfare services being
provided to persons under [eighteen (18)] THE AGE OF 18
may continue after their eighteenth birthday but not
beyond their twenty—first birthday.

[(b)] (2) All of the activities of the local
departments in the counties and in Baltimore City, which
the State [Department] ADMINISTRATION finances, in whole
or in part, shall be subject to the supervision,
direction and control of the State [Department]
ADMINISTRATION.

(B) THE STATE ADMINISTRATION SHALL ESTABLISH AND,
THROUGH ITS DIVISION OF CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT,
ADMINISTER A PROGRAM FOR RECOVERY OF CHILD SUPPORT
PAYMENTS. THE ADMINISTRATION MAY ADOPT RULES AND
REGULATIONS GOVERNING OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM.

5A.

The State [Department] ADMINISTRATION shall
establish AND MAINTAIN WITHIN ITS DIVISION OF CHILD
SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT a central registry of records
containing all available identifying information [of]
RELATING TO parents who have deserted or appear to have
deserted[,] children, whether or not the children are
likely, or liable to be, recipients of public assistance
or foster care. To effectuate the purposes of this