MFAW Guidebook
Guardianship
The law presumes all adults (age 18 and over) have the capacity for decision-making.
Therefore, at age 18, unless a person has been declared incompetent through a court proceeding, each participant will be the person responsible to make decisions regarding their participation and services provided through the MFAW Program. At age 18, these participants, or their responsible party(ies), are also required to sign all program related documents. See Responsible Party/Alternate Contact Person policy to identify each participant’s responsible party. If the responsible party also has legal custody, guardianship, or durable power attorney, that documentation must be retained in the participant’s legal record and documented in the SHCN Information System identifying the named legally responsible party(ies) and their role. The contact type for this entry is ‘legal custody’.
When a prospective participant does not have a guardian and may benefit from that type of assistance, the SHCN Regional Office will send the following information to the participant, parent(s), and/or responsible party(ies):
- A signed copy of the Guardianship Cover Letter
- Guardianship Information Packet
SHCN strongly encourages participant, parent(s), and/or responsible party(ies)to use this information to assist them in exploring and pursing the appropriate level of guardianship or alternatives to guardianship.