Code of Maryland Regulations › Title 14 - INDEPENDENT AGENCIES › Subtitle 31 - OFFICE FOR CHILDREN › Chapter 14.31.05 - Licensing and Monitoring of Residential Child Care Programs › Section 14.31.05.03 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 14, July 12, 2024
A. In this chapter,
				the following terms have the meanings indicated.
B. Terms Defined.
(1) "Agency" means the Department of Health
				and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Human Resources, or the Department of
				Juvenile Services.
(2) "Alternative
				living unit" means a residence owned, leased, or operated by a licensee that:
(a) Provides residential services for
				children who, because of a developmental disability, require specialized living
				arrangements;
(b) Admits not more
				than three children; and
(c)
				Provides 24 hours of supervision per unit, per day.
(3) "Applicant" means a person who seeks a
				license.
(4) "Aversive technique"
				means the use of painful or noxious stimuli to the body, which is intrusive to
				the individual's physical, mental, or emotional well being, to terminate
				challenging or maladaptive behavior.
(5) "Behavior plan" means a plan designed to
				modify a child's behavior through the use of clinically accepted
				techniques.
(6) "Child" means an
				individual younger than 21 years old, unless otherwise defined in the
				regulations of an agency that serves children in need of placement in a
				residential child care program.
(7)
				"Children's Cabinet" means those agencies directed by Executive Order:
(a) To examine Maryland's system of services
				to children and their families; and
(b) To facilitate ongoing improvements to
				this delivery system.
(8) "Community-based behavioral respite"
				means relief services provided by a community residential licensee designed to
				meet the individual behavioral needs of a child with a serious emotional
				disturbance for not more than 30 days in a community-based setting.
(9) "Corrective action plan" means a
				program's detailed remedy to correct deficiencies in the program's compliance
				with State licensing regulations and with other legal requirements identified
				by the licensing agency or other State or federal agency.
(10) "Day" means a calendar day.
(11) "Developmental disability" means a
				severe chronic disability of an individual that:
(a) Is attributable to a physical or mental
				impairment, other than the sole diagnosis of mental illness, or to a
				combination of mental and physical impairments;
(b) Is likely to continue
				indefinitely;
(c) Is manifested
				before the age of 22;
(d) Results
				in an inability to live independently without external support or continuing
				and regular assistance; and
(e)
				Reflects the need for a combination and sequence of special, interdisciplinary,
				or generic care, treatment, or other services that are individually planned and
				coordinated for the individual.
(12) "Emergency shelter placement" means the
				immediate placement of a child in a residential child care program because the
				placing agency or individual satisfactorily documents that it is physically
				impossible to accomplish a planned placement as required by this chapter and
				good practice.
(13) "Employee"
				means an individual who works for a licensee for compensation.
(14) "Expansion request" means a request for
				materials required by the Governor's Office for Children under COMAR 14.31.02
				of a licensed provider who wishes to expand a residential child care program to
				an additional location.
(15)
				"Facility" means the physical premises where a residential child care program
				is operated.
(16) "Group home"
				means a facility owned, leased, or operated by a licensee that provides:
(a) Residential services for youths such as
				care, diagnosis, training, education, and rehabilitation; and
(b) A group living experience.
(17) "Individualized educational
				program" means a plan for special education and related services designed to
				provide a free appropriate public education to a student with disabilities
				under 28 U.S.C. §
											1401 et seq. and COMAR 13A.05.01.
(18) "Interagency Rates Committee" means the
				Maryland Interagency Rates Advisory Committee constituted under COMAR 14.31.04
				to establish State reimbursement rates for services to children in residential
				child care programs and other programs.
(19) "License" means the approval granted by
				a licensing agency to operate a private residential child care
				program.
(20) Licensee.
(a) "Licensee" means a corporation that has
				been granted a license to operate a residential child care program.
(b) "Licensee", unless the context indicates
				otherwise, includes the corporation's:
(i)
				Board of directors;
(ii)
				Officers;
(iii)
				Employees;
(iv) Agents;
(v) Assigns; and
(vi) Volunteers.
(21) "Licensing agency" means the
				agency designated by the Governor's Office for Children to be responsible for
				licensing a private residential child care program.
(22) "Management of disruptive behavior"
				means an agency-approved curriculum for managing challenging or aggressive
				behavior.
(23) "Mechanical support"
				means a mechanical device used to support an individual's proper body position,
				balance, or alignment.
(24)
				"Medically fragile child" means a child who is dependent upon any combination
				of the following:
(a) Mechanical ventilation
				for at least part of each day;
(b)
				Intravenous administration of nutritional substances or drugs;
(c) Other device-based respiratory or
				nutritional support on a daily basis, including tracheotomy tube care,
				suctioning, or oxygen support;
(d)
				Other medical devices that compensate for vital body functions; including:
(i) Apnea or cardiorespiratory
				monitors;
(ii) Renal dialysis;
				or
(iii) Other mechanical devices;
				or
(e) Substantial
				nursing care in connection with disabilities.
(25) "Monitoring" means the evaluation of a
				program's compliance with regulations.
(26) "Mother infant programs" are residential
				child care programs that provide special services and residential care to
				children who are mothers and their infants.
(27) "Nonpublic residential educational
				facility" means the residential facility of a nonpublic school program approved
				under COMAR 13A.05.02.12D for the placement of students with
				disabilities.
(28) Parent.
(a) "Parent" means a child's biological or
				adoptive parent.
(b) "Parent",
				unless otherwise indicated, includes a child's guardian, or custodian or parent
				surrogate appointed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education
				Act.
(29) " Physical
				plant" means the building or buildings in which a private residential child
				care program or state-operated program is operated.
(30) "Placing agency" means the agency,
				individual, or entity that places a child in a private residential child care
				program or State-operated program.
(31) "Program for pregnant adolescents" means
				a residential program that provides comprehensive prenatal care, dental care,
				delivery services, pediatric services, and day care arrangements for pregnant
				minors.
(32) Program.
(a) "Program" means a private residential
				child care program.
(b) "Program",
				unless otherwise indicated, includes the physical plant.
(33) "Psychiatric respite" means residential
				programs on hospital grounds in which children discharged from inpatient
				psychiatric hospitalizations receive transition services in anticipation of
				placement in a residential treatment or community-based setting.
(34) "Quality assurance plan" means a plan
				submitted to the licensing agency by the licensee or applicant that documents
				the means by which achievement of goals and objectives established by the
				licensee will be measured.
(35)
				Residential Child Care Program.
(a)
				"Residential child care program" means an entity that provides care for
				children 24-hours-per-day within a structured set of services and activities
				that are designed to achieve specific objectives relative to the needs of the
				children served, including the provision of:
(i) Food;
(ii) Clothing;
(iii) Shelter;
(iv) Education;
(v) Social services;
(vi) Health;
(vii) Mental health;
(viii) Recreation; or
(ix) Any combination of these services and
				activities.
(b)
				"Residential child care program" includes residential services for children in:
(i) Residential facilities for children with
				developmental disabilities;
(ii)
				Child care homes;
(iii) Child care
				institutions;
(iv) Therapeutic
				group homes; and
(v) Group
				homes.
(36)
				"Residential crisis services" means intensive mental health and support
				services that are:
(a) Provided to a child
				with mental illness who is expecting, or is at risk of, a psychiatric crisis
				that would impair the child's ability to function in the community;
(b) Designed to prevent a psychiatric
				inpatient admission of the child, provide an alternative to the psychiatric
				inpatient admission, or shorten the length of an inpatient stay; and
(c) Provided on a short-term basis in a
				community-based setting for not more than 30 days.
(37) "Secure care program" means a program
				that employs locked doors or other physical means to prevent egress by alleged
				or adjudicated delinquent children.
(38) "Shelter care" means care in:
(a) A shelter care program licensed solely
				for the temporary care of children for not more than 60 days; or
(b) A self-contained structured shelter care
				program licensed by the Department of Juvenile Services for the temporary care
				of children for not more than 90 days.
(39) "State-operated residential educational
				facility" means the Maryland School for the Deaf and the Maryland School for
				the Blind.
(40) "Submit" means to
				deliver a document:
(a) In a manner that
				ensures its receipt by the party to whom it is addressed; and
(b) Which is considered complete only upon
				actual receipt by that party.
(41) "Teen mother program" means a licensed
				residential program that provides care and services for children who are
				mothers with an infant.
(42)
				"Therapeutic group home" means a small private group home that provides
				residential child care as well as access to a range of diagnostic and
				therapeutic mental health services for children and adolescents who have mental
				disorders.
(43) "Treatment foster
				care" means a 24-hour substitute care program operated by a licensed child
				placement agency or local department of social services for children with a
				serious emotional, behavioral, medical, or psychological condition.
(44) "Variance" means an alternative to a
				specific licensing regulation.
(45)
				"Volunteer" means an individual who provides services without compensation at a
				residential child care program.
(46) "Waiver" means the setting aside of a
				specific licensing regulation.
(47)
				"Wilderness program" means a program:
(a) In
				which facilities and activities are related to nature as much as possible in a
				site that is left essentially in its natural state; and
(b) Where living and program quarters and
				activities are integrated into the natural environment.