Code of Maine Rules › 10 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › 148 - OFFICE OF CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES › Chapter 19-A - RULES FOR THE LICENSURE OF PRIVATE NON-MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS-CHILD PLACING AGENCIES WITH AND WITHOUT ADOPTION PROGRAMS › Section 148-19-A-1 - DEFINITIONS

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
A. "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.