Or. Admin. R. 413-110-0000 - Definitions
The following definitions apply to OAR chapter 413, division 110.
(1) "Adoptive resource" means an
individual or individuals selected by the Department, another public child
welfare agency, or a licensed adoption agency as the adoptive family for a
child where no administrative review was requested within the timeframe allowed
for such a request, or if a review was requested, the selection has been
sustained by that review and the review is complete.
(2) "Appropriateness of adoption" means the
determination that a child can be successfully freed, placed, and maintained in
an adoptive placement and that adoption is in the best interest of the
child.
(3) "Approved family" means
a family that has been selected for a child in accordance with OAR 413-120-0010 to 413-120-0060.
(4) "Birth parent"
means the woman or man who holds a legally recognized parental relationship to
the child.
(5) "Child" means a
person under 18 years of age.
(6)
"Committee facilitator" means a Department staff member appointed as a member
of the committee to facilitate a permanency or adoption committee
meeting.
(7) "Compelling reason"
means a reason meeting specific criteria and documented in the case plan by the
local Department staff for not to file a petition to terminate parental rights
of the parents of a child where the Department would otherwise be required to
do so under state and federal law.
(8) "Date child entered substitute care":
Oregon statute and federal law use the date the child is found to be within the
jurisdiction of the court under ORS
419B.100 or 60 days from date of removal, whichever is earlier. The Department uses the
date of the child's initial substitute care placement for calculating Citizens
Review Board reviews, court, or permanency hearings intervals.
(9) "Department" means the Department of
Human Services, Child Welfare.
(10)
"Indian child" means any unmarried person who is under age 18 and either:
(a) Is a member or citizen of an Indian
tribe; or
(b) Is eligible for
membership or citizenship in an Indian tribe and is the biological child of a
member or citizen of an Indian tribe.
(11) "Legal risk placement" means a placement
that occurs when the Department believes that an adoption is in the best
interests of the child; that the child is placed in an approved adoptive home;
and the agency intends to approve this placement for adoption if the child
becomes legally free for adoption.
(12) "Local Office Permanency/Adoption
Committee" means the branch committee responsible for certain permanency and
adoptions decisions, as specified in these rules. Members are selected by the
local office from among the staff of the Department's field offices. The
members must not be involved in the case to be heard.
(13) "Permanency/Adoption Council" (Council)
means a council consisting of field management staff, permanency and adoption
staff, and community partners from several districts, except that the Council
in District 2 consists only of representatives from Multnomah County. A Council
makes decisions for children whose county of jurisdiction is within their
geographic area about appropriateness of adoption as a permanency plan, sibling
planning, recruitment, adoption disruptions, and adoption selections referred
by the local office. It also may provide permanency staffings to decide whether
to place a child with an out-of-state relative resource prior to receipt by the
Department of an approved adoption home study.
(14) "Permanency/Adoption Council Committee"
(Committee) means a committee established by the Permanency/Adoption Council
that is responsible for decisions regarding adoptive placement selections that
are not the responsibility of the local office or the Department's Adoption
Services Unit. The district manager or designee responsible for the local
office may delegate a decision to the Committee. Each Committee must include at
least three members not involved in the case to be heard by the Committee.
There are two types:
(a) An ad-hoc committee
selected by the child's worker. This committee consists of three people drawn
from a pool of qualified permanency and adoption staff designated by the
Council.
(b) The Standing
Permanency/Adoption Committee. This committee is a standing committee of three
persons appointed by the Council or the Council chair. Responsibilities of this
committee include making decisions, such as those relating to sibling placement
planning or current caretaker placement decisions, delegated by the Local
Office Permanency/Adoption Committee to the Council.
(15) "Permanency committee" means a group of
individuals who are responsible for making a recommendation regarding a
permanency plan or a potential permanency resource when the child or young
adult likely is not returning to his or her parent.
(16) "Permanency plan" means a written course
of action for achieving safe and lasting family resources for the child.
Although the plan may change as more information becomes available, the goal is
to develop safe and permanent family resources with the parents, relatives, or
other people who will assume legal responsibility for the child during the
remaining years of dependency and be accessible and supportive to the child in
adulthood.
(17) "Relative" has the
same meaning as in OAR 413-070-0000.
(18) "Sibling" means one of two or more
children or young adults who are related, or would be related but for a
termination or other disruption of parental rights, in one of the following
ways:
(a) By blood or adoption through a
common parent;
(b) Through the
marriage of the legal or biological parents of the children or young adults;
or
(c) Through a legal or
biological parent who is the registered domestic partner of the legal or
biological parent of the children or young adults.
(19) "Substitute care" means an out-of-home
placement of a child or young adult who is in the legal or physical custody and
care of the Department.
Notes
Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 418.005
Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 418.005
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