Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 441 - Human Services Department › Title XVI - Alternative Living › Chapter 202 - Foster Care Placement and Services › Rule 441-202.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
"Age- or developmentally appropriate
				  activities"
means activities or items that are generally accepted as
				  suitable for children of the same chronological age or level of maturity or
				  that are determined to be developmentally appropriate for a child, based on the
				  development of cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities that
				  are typical for an age or age group; and in the case of a specific child,
				  activities or items that are suitable for the child based on the developmental
				  stages attained by the child with respect to the cognitive, emotional,
				  physical, and behavioral capacities of the child.
"Case permanency plan"
shall mean the plan
				  identifying goals, needs, strengths, problems, services, time frames for
				  meeting goals and for delivery of the services to the child and parents,
				  objectives, desired outcomes, and responsibilities of all parties involved and
				  reviewing progress. This includes information describing efforts to retain
				  existing medical and mental health care providers for a child entering or in
				  foster care and activities to evaluate service needs to avoid inappropriate
				  diagnoses of mental illness, other emotional or behavioral disorders, medically
				  fragile conditions, or developmental disabilities.
"Child"
shall mean the same as defined by
				  Iowa Code section
				  234.1.
"Department"
shall mean the Iowa department
				  of human services and includes the local offices of the department.
"Eligible child"
shall mean a child for whom
				  the court has given guardianship to the department or has transferred legal
				  custody to the department or for whom the department has agreed to provide
				  foster care services on the basis of a signed placement agreement or who has
				  been placed in emergency care for a period of not more than 30 days upon the
				  approval of the director or the director's designee.
"Facility"
means the personnel, program,
				  plant and equipment of a person or agency providing child foster care.
"Family safety, risk, and permanency
				  service"
means a service provided under 441-Chapter 172 that uses
				  strategies and interventions designed to achieve safety and permanency for a
				  child with an open department child welfare case, regardless of the setting in
				  which the child resides.
"Foster care"
shall mean substitute care
				  furnished on a 24-hour-a-day basis to an eligible child in a licensed or
				  approved facility by a person or agency other than the child's parent or
				  guardian but does not include care provided in a family home through an
				  informal arrangement for a period of 20 days or less. Child foster care shall
				  include but is not limited to the provision of food, lodging, training,
				  education, supervision, and health care.
"Kinship caregiver"
means, for this chapter
				  only, a person to whom a child is related by blood, marriage, or adoption, or a
				  person who has a significant, committed, positive relationship with the child,
				  who is caring for a child in foster care, under court-ordered supervision
				  pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 232.
"Natural parent"
shall mean a parent by
				  blood, marriage, or adoption.
"Person"
or
"agency"
shall
				  mean individuals, institutions, partnerships, voluntary associations, and
				  corporations, other than institutions under the management or control of the
				  department, who are licensed by the department as a foster family home, child
				  caring agency or child placing agency, or approved as a shelter care
				  facility.
"Reasonable and prudent parent standard"
means the standard characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions
				  that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child while at the
				  same time encourage the emotional and developmental growth of the child, that a
				  caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care
				  under the responsibility of the state to participate in extracurricular,
				  enrichment, cultural, and social activities. For the purposes of this
				  definition, "caregiver" means a foster parent with whom a child in foster care
				  has been placed or a designated official for a child care institution
				  (including group homes, residential treatment, shelters, or other congregate
				  care settings) in which a child in foster care has been placed.
"Resource family"
means an individual person
				  or married couple who is licensed to provide foster family care or approved for
				  adoption.
"Safety-related information"
means
				  information that indicates whether the child has behaved in a manner that
				  threatened the safety of another person, has committed a violent act causing
				  bodily injury to another person, or has been a victim or perpetrator of sexual
				  abuse.
"Service area manager"
shall mean the
				  department employee responsible for managing department offices and personnel
				  within the service area and for implementing policies and procedures of the
				  department.
"Social history"
or
"child
				  study"
means a written description of the child that includes
				  strengths and needs; medical, mental, social, educational, placement and court
				  history; and the child's relationships with the birth family and significant
				  others.
This rule is intended to implement Iowa Code section
				  234.6(6)
"b."