This section defines terms used in the Article, including adoption, child, foster care, foster parent, child placing agency, and related facilities and licenses.
For purposes of this Article, unless the context clearly implies otherwise: (1)“Adoption” means the act of creating a legal relationship between parent and child where it did not exist genetically. (2)“Adoptive Home” means a family home approved by a child placing agency to accept a child for adoption. (3)“Child” means an individual less than 21 years of age, who has not been emancipated under the provisions of Article 35 of Chapter 7B of the General Statutes. (4)“Child Placing Agency” means a person authorized by statute or license under this Article to receive children for purposes of placement in residential group care, family foster homes or adoptive homes. (5)“Children’s Camp” means a residential child-care facility which provides foster care at either a permanent camp site or in a wilderness setting. (6a)“Criminal History” means a county, State, or federal conviction of a felony by a court of competent jurisdiction or a pending felony indictment of a crime for child abuse or neglect, spousal abuse, a crime against a child, including child pornography, or for a crime involving violence, including rape, sexual assault, or homicide, other than physical assault or battery; a county, State, or federal conviction of a felony by a court of competent jurisdiction or a pending felony indictment for physical assault, battery, or a drug-related offense, if the offense was committed within the past five years; or similar crimes under federal law or under the laws of other states. (7)“Department” means the Department of Health and Human Services. (8)“Family Foster Home” means the private residence of one or more individuals who permanently reside as members of the household and who provide continuing full-time foster care for a child or children who are placed there by a child placing agency or who provide continuing full-time foster care for two or more children who are unrelated to the adult members of the household by blood, marriage, guardianship or adoption. (9)“Foster Care” means the continuing provision of the essentials of daily living on a 24-hour basis for dependent, neglected, abused, abandoned, destitute, orphaned, undisciplined or delinquent children or other children who, due to similar problems of behavior or family conditions, are living apart from their parents, relatives, or guardians in a family foster home or residential child-care facility. The essentials of daily living include but are not limited to shelter, meals, clothing, education, recreation, and individual attention and supervision. (9a)“Foster Parent” means any individual who is 21 years of age or older who is licensed by the State to provide foster care. (10)“Person” means an individual, partnership, joint-stock company, trust, voluntary association, corporation, agency, or other organization or enterprise doing business in this State, whether or not for profit. (11)“Primarily Educational Institution” means any institution which operates one or more scholastic or vocational and technical education programs that can be offered in satisfaction of compulsory school attendance laws, in which the primary purpose of the housing and care of children is to meet their educational needs, provided such institution has complied with Article 39 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes. (12)“Provisional License” means a type of license granted by the Department to a person who is temporarily unable to comply with a rule or rules adopted under this Article. (13)“Residential Child-Care Facility” means a staffed premise with paid or volunteer staff where children receive continuing full-time foster care. Residential child-care facility includes child-caring institutions, group homes, and children’s camps which provide foster care. (14)“Therapeutic Foster Home” means a family foster home where, in addition to the provision of foster care, foster parents who receive appropriate training provide a child with behavioral health treatment services under the supervision of a county department of social services, an area mental health program, or a licensed private agency and in compliance with licensing rules adopted by the Commission. History: History.1983, c. 637, s. 2; 1993, c. 180, s. 5; 1995, c. 507, s. 23.26(a); 1997-140, s. 1; 1997-443, s. 11A.118(a); 1998-202, s. 13(hh); 2001-487, s. 84(b); 2007-276, s. 11; 2015-241, s. 12C.9(d).