Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 340 - Department of Human Services › Chapter 75 - Licensing Services › Subchapter 15 - Adoptions › Part 2 - ADOPTION SERVICES PROGRAM LEGAL AUTHORITY AND SCOPE › Section 340:75-15-7 - Definitions

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this
					 Subchapter, have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates
					 otherwise:
"Adoptee"
means a person who is adopted or is
					 to be adopted.
"Adoption"
means a way of meeting the child's
					 best interests by providing him or her with a permanent family through a legal
					 transfer of the parental responsibilities for that child from the parent or
					 legal guardian to the adoptive parent, per the Oklahoma Adoption Code, Section
					 7501-1.1 et seq. of Title 10 of
					 the Oklahoma Statutes (10 O.S. §§ 7501-1.1 et seq.). The adoption
					 process creates a new kinship network that links the birth family and the
					 adoptive family through the child.
"Adoption assistance"
means medical
					 assistance, monthly monetary payment, or both, and limited reimbursement of
					 attorney's fees and other non-recurring expenses related to the adoption's
					 finalization, provided to the adoptive parent based on the child's needs and
					 the adopting parent(s)' circumstances.
"Adoption assistance agreement"
means a
					 binding, contractual agreement negotiated between an adoptive parent and
					 Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) that specifies the:
(A) duration of the agreement;
(B) nature and amount of any payment,
				  service, or assistance provided;
(C) agreement remains in effect regardless of
				  the adoptive parent's state of residence;
(D) child's interests are protected in cases
				  where the adoptive parent and the child move to another state;
(E) adoptive parent's requirements to
				  continue receiving assistance;
(F)
				  adoptive parent chooses to defer the receipt of medical assistance, monthly
				  monetary payment, or both and elects to maintain the option in the future;
				  and
(G) child is not immediately
				  eligible for adoption assistance benefits; however, he or she is at risk of
				  developing a special need making him or her eligible for adoption assistance
				  after the adoption finalization.
"Adoption disruption"
means the interruption
					 of a prospective adoption after the child's placement and before the adoption
					 finalization.
"Adoption dissolution"
means the act of
					 ending an adoption by a court order terminating the legal relationship between
					 the child and the adoptive parent. This term applies only after finalization of
					 the adoption.
"Agency decline"
means an OKDHS decision not
					 to proceed with a child's placement in an authorized adoptive home.
"Alleged father"
means
a man who
					 alleges himself to be, or is alleged to be, the genetic father or a possible
					 genetic father of a child, but whose paternity has not been
					 determined
, per 10 O.S. § 7700-102.
The term does not
					 include a presumed father.
"Applicant"
means a person who makes a formal
					 application to become a resource parent but has not completed the approval
					 process.
"Application"
means a completed Form
					 04AF001E, Resource Family Assessment Application. Form 04AF001E requires
					 documents and actions completed by the applicant.
"Approved adoptive family"
means a family who
					 completed the required assessment process for adoption approval, per Oklahoma
					 Administrative Code (OAC)
					 340:75-15-88.
"Attachment"
means a psychologically-rooted
					 tie between two persons that permits them to have powerful emotional
					 significance for each other.
"Authorized adoptive placement"
means an
					 approved adoptive family is authorized to take placement of an
					 adoption-eligible child.
"Child profile"
means the full-disclosure
					 report prepared when the child's permanency plan is adoption, including
					 information regarding the child's biological-family background and the child's
					 social, educational, and medical history. When the child's permanency plan is
					 adoption, the child profile is prepared and provided to the adoptive parent
					 after the adoption authorization is completed, prior to the child's placement
					 in the adoptive home.
"Child with special needs"
means a child, per
					 Public Law
					 96-272, who may be difficult to place for adoption
					 due to:
(A) a serious physical or
				  mental disability;
(B) emotional
				  disturbance;
(C) a high risk to
				  develop a physical or mental disability;
(D) his or her age;
(E) a sibling relationship;
(F) racial or cultural factors; or
(G) a combination of these conditions.
"Concurrent planning"
means the provision of
					 reunification services to the child in OKDHS custody and the child's parent or
					 legal guardian while simultaneously developing an alternative plan in the event
					 reunification efforts fail or are no longer feasible.
"Directive"
means a document signed by the
					 OKDHS Director or his or her designee authorizing an OKDHS employee to sign
					 consent to the adoption of a child who is in OKDHS custody.
"Disclosure"
means a process in which OKDHS
					 provides medical, psychological, educational, and social history including the
					 child's profile to the adoptive parent.
"Family decline"
means a decision made by the
					 family not to pursue placement of the child for whom they were
					 authorized.
"Finalized adoption"
means the legal
					 consummation of an adoption.
"Indian Child Welfare Act"
means federal and
					 state laws that govern the removal and out-of-home placement of Indian
					 children, per Section
					 1901 et seq. of Title 25 of the
					 United States Code, and 10 O.S. §§ 40 et seq.
"Interlocutory decree"
means a temporary
					 court order, after the filing of the adoption petition that gives the
					 petitioner temporary care and custody of the child until the final decree of
					 adoption is entered by the court.
"Licensed child-placing agency"
means a
					 private agency licensed by OKDHS that arranges for or places a child who is
					 legally available for adoption, in an adoptive home.
"Life Book"
means a compilation of
					 photographs, documents, mementos, illustrations, and narrative accounts of
					 important events in a child's and family's lives. The child's Life Book is
					 compiled with or for the child who is in OKDHS custody in an effort to prepare
					 the child for placement. The adoptive family's Life Book is completed by the
					 family as part of the assessment process.
"Notice of Plan for Adoption"
means written
					 notification provided to the alleged or presumed father that the birth mother
					 is considering adoptive placement for the child. Notice of Plan for Adoption
					 may be given by OKDHS, a licensed child-placing agency, or an attorney
					 representing the child's prospective adoptive parent, before or after the
					 child's birth.
"Presumed father"
means a man who, by
					 operation of law, per 10 O.S. § 7700-204, is recognized as the child's
					 father until that status is rebutted or confirmed in a judicial proceeding
					 under the Uniform Parentage Act. A man is presumed the child's father,
					 when:
(A) he and the child's mother
				  are married to each other and the child is born during the marriage;
(B) he and the child's mother were married to
				  each other and the child is born within 300-calendar days after the marriage is
				  terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, dissolution of
				  marriage, or after decree of separation;
(C) before the child's birth, he and the
				  child's mother married each other in apparent compliance with law, even when
				  the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and the child is born
				  during the invalid marriage or within 300-calendar days after the invalid
				  marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity,
				  dissolution of marriage, or after decree of separation;
(D) after the child's birth, he and the
				  child's mother married each other in apparent compliance with law, even when
				  the marriage is or could be declared invalid, and he voluntarily asserted his
				  paternity of the child; and:
(i) the assertion
				  is in a record with the Oklahoma State Department of Health, Division of Vital
				  Records or OKDHS;
(ii) he agreed to
				  be and is named as the child's father on the child's birth certificate;
				  or
(iii) he promised in a record to
				  support the child as his own; or