Alternative personal care of minor child

In Slovakia legal regulation of family relations is governed by the Act No 36/2005 Coll. the Family Act and amended („the Family Act“). Pursuant to section 44 there are several legal institutes that can be applied where there is a need of replacement of the personal care of parents for a minor child in cases where the parents do not or cannot provide it. These are:

• entrusting a minor child to the personal care of a natural person other than a parent („alternative personal care“),
• foster care (individual family),
• institutional care (Local Authority House)

If the interests of the minor child so require, the court may entrust the minor child to an alternative personal care. Only a natural person with permanent residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic who has full legal capacity, personal preconditions, especially medical, personal and moral, and by the way of his or her life and life of persons who live with her or him in the household, it can be guaranteed that she or he will provide alternative personal care in the interests of the minor child, can become a person to whom a minor child can be entrusted in this way. For the duration of the child's withdrawal during the child's withdrawal the minor child cannot be entrusted to alternative personal care to a person who does not provide personal care for his or her minor child because he or she has been deprived of his or her care by a court decision.

When entrusting a minor child to alternative personal care, the court will give priority to the relative of the minor child, if he or she meets the established preconditions

In the decision, the court shall define for the person to whom the minor child has been entrusted for alternative personal care, his or her scope of rights and obligations towards the minor child.

The person to whom the minor child has been entrusted to alternative personal care is obliged to provide personal care for the minor child to the same extent as the parents. The right to represent the minor child and to manage its property has only in ordinary matters. If this person assumes that the decision of the minor's legal guardian (parent) in substantive matters is not in the best interests of the minor, he or she may request that this compliance be reviewed by a court in the specific decision of the legal guardian.

The parents of a minor child carry out the rights and duties arising out of parental rights and duties only in the scope in which they do not pertain to the individual to whom the minor child has been entrusted for substitute personal care. The parents have a right to have contact with a minor child who has been entrusted to substitute personal care. If they are unable to come to agreement on the execution of this right with the individual to whom the minor child has been entrusted, a court shall adjudicate on the petition of one of the parents or this individual.

According to section 45 paragraph 7 of the Family Act „The maintenance obligation of the parents towards the minor child shall not be extinguished by a court decision pursuant to section 1.“

According to section 45 paragraph 9 of the Family Act „At least every six months, the court shall, in cooperation with the authority of social-legal protection of children or in cooperation with other persons who are familiar with the circumstances of the minor, evaluate the performance of alternative personal care, in particular the quality of childcare in alternative personal care and the fact whether parents themselves can provide personal care for a minor child.“

The Slovakian court can issue the order for entrusting the children in personal care of their relative where the court stipulates the right of the carer, the duties and can stipulate the child support duty for the parent of the children.