Section 29-1645. DEFINITIONS

 

1645.1 When used in this chapter the following terms and phrases shall have the meaning ascribed below:

 

Adoptee - the person whose legal status is changed once a decree of adoption has been entered.

 

Adoption - a social and legal process designed to establish a legal parent child relationship giving a child the same rights and benefits of one who is born to the adoptive parents.

 

Adoptive family - a household which has been approved by a child-placing agency to accept a child for adoption, which may be awaiting placement of a child or may have a child in the home.

 

Adoptive parent - a single or married person with whom a child has been placed for adoption or who has adopted a child.

 

Adoptive placement - arranging for the care of a child who is in the custody of a child-placing agency in an approved home for the purpose of adoption.

 

Agency assisted adoption - an adoption in which a child-placing agency provides a home study and post-placement supervision services and is responsible for facilitating the linkage with persons, institutions, or agencies located either in a foreign country or in the United States. The adoptive parent(s) may have either guardianship or final foreign decree of adoption of the child when the child arrives in the United States.

 

Agency placement adoption - an adoption in which a child-placing agency identifies and arranges placement for a foreign child. The child-placing agency provides home study and post placement supervision services, and is responsible for facilitating the linkage with child-placing institutions or agencies located either in a foreign country or in the United States. The child-placing agency holds guardianship of the child when he or she arrives in the United States and consents to the adoption.

 

Birth parent - a biological parent of a child.

 

Child - any individual under 16 years of age.

 

Child placement service - social work and other professional services provided by the public agency or licensed child-placing agency for birth parents, children, adoptive parent(s), and foster parent(s) in those cases where children may be in need of substitute or permanent care.

 

Child-placing agency - any person, firm, corporation, association, or public agency that receives or accepts child(ren) under 16 years of age and places or offers to place such child for temporary or permanent care in a family home other than that of a relative within the third degree.

 

Foster care - the provision of substitute care and supervision for a child entrusted to a public agency or a licensed child-placing agency, or for whom the public agency or a licensed child-placing agency has accepted supervision, in a temporary living situation until the child can return to his or her family or be placed in an adoptive home or reach the age of majority.

 

Foster care placement - placement of a child in the custody of a child-placing agency into a suitable foster home.

 

Foster home - a household of one or more persons that provides continuing full-time care for one to four foster children, ages 0 through 20 years, living apart from their parents, guardian(s), or relatives.

 

Foster parent - an individual approved by the child-placing agency who provides supervision and care on a 24-hour basis for a child who must receive care out of his own home.

 

International adoption - a process by which a married couple or single individual of one country adopts a child from another country, thereby establishing a legal and social relationship of parent and child.

 

Petition - petition for adoption filed with the Court.

 

Post-adoptive services - those services provided to meet the ongoing needs of the family once the adoption has been finalized both in the United States and in the child’s country of origin in the case of inter-country adoption.

 

Post-placement services - those services in which the child-placing agency supervises, monitors, and evaluates the child and family from the time of placement for a period of at least six (6) months or until the finalization of the adoption.

 

Reciprocity agreement - a child-placing agreement between the Mayor of the District of Columbia and the Maryland Department of Human Resources entered into April 7, 1986.

 

Record - the individual file(s) kept by an agency concerning a child who has been accepted for care or adoptive placement, the child’s family, adoptive applicant or family, foster family, and agency employees.

 

Relinquishment - the legal document voluntarily executed by the natural parent(s) severing all of their parental rights and responsibilities to their child and transferring these rights and responsibilities to a child-placing agency for the purposes of placing the child in an adoptive home and consenting to adoption.

 

Significant others - any person of particular importance in the life of the client.

 

Social services agency - an agency or program in which the purpose is to promote social welfare, e. g., a public welfare department, a family service agency. Educational facilities, legal services facilities, correctional institutions, health and medical facilities are not considered to be social service agencies; however, persons employed in social service programs operated by those facilities may meet the specified qualifications.

 

Termination of parental rights - a court order relieving natural parents of all rights, responsibilities, and relationship with a child.

 

 

source

Final Rulemaking published at 37 DCR 3033, 3069 (May 11, 1990).