Current through 2024-51, December 18, 2024
Section 148-19-A-1 - DEFINITIONSA. "Adult" shall mean a person who has attained his/her 18th birthday.B. "Advertise" shall mean the act of stating in writing that the facility is available and willing to provide an individual with services which will result in the placing or assisting in finding homes for children under 18 years of age for purposes of either adoption or foster care.C. "Blood relatives" shall mean mother, fathers, sister, brother grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and first cousins.D. "Case Management" shall mean the implementation of a case plan, and case supervision, including arranging for support services in maintaining individuals in their own homes or substitute living arrangements.E. "Casework Services" shall mean the combination of activities whereby PNMI- Child Placing Agency staff carry out the process of assisting people in reaching and implementing decisions for themselves and their children. This process is carried out within a meaningful professional relationship.F. "Certification" shall mean written approval of the pre-adoptive parent/s' home as a certified home by a PNMI- Child Placing Agency subsequent to review and assurance that all of the certification rules are met. The PNMI- Child Placing Agency must be the PNMI- Child Placing Agency that has conducted the home study, the home certification review process, and is placing a child into the home being considered for certification.G. "Certified Home"() shall mean a child's home that is a private dwelling where substitute pre-adoptive parental care is provided within a family on a regular, 24-hour-a-day, residential basis for the purpose of legal risk adoption.H. "Child" shall mean a person under the age of 18 who is not related by blood or marriage to, or who has not been legally adopted by, the licensee or administrator of any PNMI- Child Placing Agency.I. "Child Placing Agency" shall mean any facility which advertises itself or holds itself out as finding homes for or otherwise placing children under the age of 18, in homes where care is provided on the basis of 24 hours a day.J. "Commissioner" shall mean the Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services.K. "Department" shall mean the Department of Health and Human Services.L. "Facility" shall mean any person partnership, voluntary association or corporation.M. "Family" shall mean a single individual or a couple who is approved for the placement of a child for adoption.N. "Foster Care" shall mean the full time care with provision of those things necessary to assure safe healthful living for the child unattended by parent or guardians, including but not limited to food, shelter and appropriate supervision. This shall not include placement with blood relatives, relatives by marriage or relatives by adoption.O. "Holding out" shall mean a series of actions or oral statements by a facility which affirmatively communicates the facility's availability and willingness to place or assist in finding homes for children for purposes of either adoption or foster care.P. "Other Qualified Licensed Treatment Foster Care Providers" shall mean licensed treatment foster care homes/parents who hold a contract to provide treatment foster care services to State PNMI- Child Placing Agency clients.Q. "Post Adoption" shall mean the point at which the adoptive parent(s) have completed the legal process of adoption. Post Adoption is the same as "Post Legalization."R. "Pre-adoptive parent" shall mean a person who has entered into an agreement with a licensed private Child Placing Agency that has certified the person/s as a potential adoptive parent who will accept a child into care with the intent to adopt that child. S. Private Non-Medical Institution-Child Placing Agency with and without Adoption Programs (PNMI-Child Placing Agency)"shall mean a category of Child Placing Agency that receives MaineCare funds that must comply with additional requirements as specified in various sections of these rules, and which advertises itself or holds itself out as finding homes for or otherwise placing children under the age of 18, in homes where care is provided on the basis of 24 hours a day or as further defined in 22 MRSA § 228201. S. "Reasonable cost of services provided" shall mean the cost which does not exceed either the actual cost of services provided to the child to be adopted, the child's biological parent(s), and the adoptive family, or the cost which does not exceed the average cost of those services based on the costs of the total adoption program.T. "Relatives by adoption" shall mean adoptive mother, adoptive fathers, adoptive grandparents adoptive sister or brother, and the brother or sister of the adoptive parent.U. "Relatives by marriage" shall mean step-mother, step-father, stepbrother, step-sister, step-grandparents, and brother or sister of step-parent.V. "Resident" shall mean a person residing in the home on a 24 hour basis as well as other persons that may reside at or visit the home for extended periods of one month or more.10-148 C.M.R. ch. 19, § A-1