10-148-19 Me. Code R. § 1

Current through 2024-25, June 19, 2024

Section 148-19-1 - DEFINITIONS

A. "Adult" shall mean a person who has attained his 18th birthday.

B. "Advertise" shall mean the act of stating in writing that the facility is available and willing to provide an individual with services which will result in the placing or assisting in finding homes for children under 18 years of age for purposes of either adoption or foster care.

C. "Blood relatives" shall mean mother, fathers, sister, brother grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and first cousins.

D. "Case Management" shall mean the implementation of a case plan, and case supervision, including arranging for support services in maintaining individuals in their own homes or substitute living arrangements.

E. "Casework Services" shall mean the combination of activities whereby agency staff carry out the process of assisting people in reaching and implementing decisions for themselves and their children. This process is carried out within a meaningful professional relationship.

F. "Child" shall mean a person under the age of 18 who is not related by blood or marriage to, or who has not been legally adopted by, the licensee or administrator of any child placing agency.

G. "Child Placing Agency" shall mean any facility which advertises itself or holds itself out as finding homes for or otherwise placing children under the age of 18, in homes where care is provided on the basis of 24 hours a day.

H. "Commissioner" shall mean the Commissioner of the Department of Human Services.

I. "Department" shall mean the Department of Human Services.

J. "Facility" shall mean any person partnership, voluntary association or corporation.

K. "Foster Care" shall mean the full time care with provision of those things necessary to assure safe healthful living for the child unattended by parent or guardians, including but not limited to food, shelter and appropriate supervision. This shall not include placement with blood relatives, relatives by marriage or relatives by adoption.

L. "Holding out" shall mean a series of actions or oral statements by a facility which affirmatively communicates the facility's availability and willingness to place or assist in finding homes for children for purposes of either adoption or foster care.

M. "Reasonable cost of services provided" shall mean the cost which does not exceed either the actual cost of services provided to the child to be adopted, the child's biological parent(s), and the adoptive family, or the cost which does not exceed the average cost of those services based on the costs of the total adoption program.

N. "Relatives by adoption" shall mean adoptive mother, adoptive fathers, adoptive grandparents adoptive sister or brother, and the brother or sister of the adoptive parent.

O. "Relatives by marriage" shall mean step-mother, step-father, stepbrother, step-sister, step-grandparents, and brother or sister of step-parent.

10-148 C.M.R. ch. 19, § 1