New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 3A - CHILDREN AND FAMILIES › Chapter 22 - REQUIREMENTS FOR CP&P ADOPTIONS › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 3A:22-1.3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms used in this chapter shall have the
				  following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Adoption registry services" means services to an adult adoptee
				  to find a member of his or her birth family; services to an adoptive parent of a
				  minor adoptee to assist him or her in securing medical information or in dealing
				  with identity issues related to adoption; or services to a birth family member who
				  has a desire or need for knowledge of or contact with a child who was placed for
				  adoption.
"Adoptive applicant" means a person who has applied to the
				  Division to adopt a child.
"Adoptive parent" means a person with whom a child has been
				  placed by the Division for adoption or who has adopted a child.
"Adoptive placement" means the placement of a child in an
				  adoptive home by the Division for the purpose of adoption. For foster home
				  adoptions, the adoptive placement begins on the date the Division consent for
				  adoption is signed by the local office manager. For a selected adoptive home
				  placement, the adoptive placement begins on the date the child is placed in the
				  home.
"Adult adoptee" means an individual 18 years of age or older
				  whose adoptive placement was made by the Division or its predecessor agencies, that
				  is, the Bureau of Children's Services, the State Board of Child Welfare or the State
				  Board of Children's Guardians.
"Birth family member" means a person, or a relative of a person,
				  whose child was placed for adoption through the Division or its predecessor
				  agencies.
"Child" means any person under 18 years of age.
"Child-specific recruitment" means seeking a select adoptive
				  parent for a particular child.
"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Children and
				  Families.
"Division" means the Division of Child Protection and Permanency
				  in the Department of Children and Families.
"Finalization" means the entry of a legal order of adoption
				  issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, pursuant to
				  N.J.S.A. 9:3-38 et seq.
"General recruitment" means attending community events or
				  distributing literature to raise community awareness of the general needs for
				  adoptive parents or resource families willing to parent a child with special needs.
"Home study" means the Division's formal assessment of the
				  capacity and readiness of prospective adoptive parents to adopt a child, including
				  the Division's written report and recommendation.
"Licensed adoptive applicant" means a person who is a resource
				  family parent licensed in accordance with N.J.A.C. 3A:51 or a person who has been
				  approved as an out-of-State adoptive parent.
"Office of Licensing" means the Office of Licensing in the New
				  Jersey Department of Children and Families.
"Post-adoption services" means all services, other than adoption
				  registry services, offered by or through the auspices of the Department of Children
				  and Families to any party involved in an adoption after finalization of the
				  adoption.
"Post-placement services" means any and all services offered by
				  or through the auspices of the Division to any member of an adoptive family from the
				  time of the placement of the child for foster or adoptive purposes by the Division
				  to the time of finalization of the adoption.
"Recruitment" means enhancing public awareness of issues related
				  to adoption through the use of public service announcements, social events,
				  newspaper series, videos, educational displays, public speaking engagements and the
				  dissemination of literature for the purpose of developing new adoptive homes for
				  special needs children.
"Resource family parent" means a person who is licensed by the
				  Office of Licensing in accordance with N.J.A.C. 3A:51 to provide resource family
				  care, including a person who is licensed to have a child or children placed with him
				  or her for the purpose of adoption.
"Selected adoptive home" means a licensed or approved (if
				  out-of-State) adoptive applicant who provides or wants to provide an adoptive home
				  to a child who does not reside with the licensed adoptive applicant as a foster
				  child.
"Special needs child" means any child as specified in
				  N.J.A.C.
				  3A:23-1.2, who the State of New Jersey or a
				  private adoption agency licensed to operate in New Jersey has the legal right to
				  place for adoption, but who is reasonably expected to be hard to place due to
				  difficulty in finding a prospective adoptive home for a special needs child.
"Targeted recruitment" means focusing on adoptive parents for
				  particular groups of special needs children, such as adolescents or children with
				  emotional or physical problems.