Alaska Administrative Code
Title 7 - Health and Social Services
Part 4 - Children's Services and Juvenile Justice
Chapter 56 - Child Placement Agencies
Article 8 - Miscellaneous Provisions
7 AAC 56.990 - Definitions

(1) "credited college or university" means a college or university accredited by the regional or national accrediting agencies recognized by the Council on Post-Secondary Accreditation and the United States Department of Education at the time the degree was conferred;

(2) "administrator" means an individual who has general administrative charge and oversight of a facility or agency;

(3) "agency" means a child placement agency;

(4) "Alaska Sexual Offender Registry" means the central registry of sex offenders and child kidnappers established under AS 18.65.087(a);

(5) "arranges or arranging for placement" means planning for a child's care and treatment, selection of a particular foster care, residential care, guardianship, or adoption setting for a child or linking a birth parent to a particular foster care, residential care, guardianship or adoption setting for a child, and supervision of a child's care;

(6) "caregiver" includes a foster, adoptive or guardianship parent, staff in a residential child care setting, or other person responsible for a child's care in a placement setting;

(7) "child" means

(8) "child placement" has the meaning given "arranges or arranging for placement";

(9) "child placement agency" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900;

(10) "child placing worker" means an administrator, employee, contractor working in the United States, substitute, volunteer, student intern, or other person in an agency whose duties include child placement, foster home licensing evaluations, or home studies;

(11) "child with special needs"

(12) "client" means a birth parent, foster home applicant, adoptive applicant, and guardianship applicant who enters into a contract or agreement with the agency;

(13) "contractor" means a contractor who performs services for an agency and has routine contact with children and other clients of the agency;

(14) "department" means the Department of Family and Community Services;

(15) repealed 7/1/2022;

(16) "emergency placement" means placement of a child under emergency conditions for a period usually not exceeding 90 days;

(17) "EPSDT" means the early periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment provided under 7 AAC 110.200 - 7 AAC 110.210;

(18) "facility" means the administration, program, and physical plant of a foster home;

(19) "foster home" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900;

(20) "foster parent" means a person providing foster care for children; "foster parent" includes a shelter home parent;

(21) "home" means a foster home, an adoptive home, or a guardianship home;

(22) "home study" means a written report of an investigation of the prospective adoptive or foster parent or parents' ability to care for a child that has been prepared in accordance with AS 25.23.100(f), including the joint assessment process entered into by the agency and a foster home licensee or an applicant for adoption or guardianship or a foster home license for the purpose of determining the family's strengths and how they could best serve the children the agency has available for placement;

(23) "human services field" means social services, juvenile corrections, education, mental health, developmental disabilities, health care, pastoral counseling, and related subjects;

(24) "ICPC" means the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (AS 47.70.010-47.70.080);

(25) "ICWA" means the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1901 - 1963);

(26) "infant" has the meaning given in 7 AAC 50.990;

(27) "least restrictive setting" means the most family-like setting that can provide the environment and services needed to serve the child's best interests and special needs;

(28) "license" means a permit issued under AS 47.10.392 or a license issued under AS 47.32;

(29) "licensee" with respect to a person to whom a license has been issued under AS 47.10.310 or AS 47.32, has the meaning given "licensed entity" in AS 47.32.900;

(30) "licensing representative" means an employee of the department whose decisions are subject to review and approval by the department;

(31) "medically fragile child" means a child who lacks physical or emotional strength and requires frequent medical attention from personnel outside of the facility or agency;

(32) "mental health professional" has the meaning given in AS 47.30.915;

(33) "operator" means the person licensed to operate an agency;

(34) "parent" means a birth or adoptive parent or a legal guardian;

(35) "placement" means placement of a child;

(36) "placement setting" includes a foster home licensed under 7 AAC 67, a residential child care facility licensed under 7 AAC 50, and a home providing guardianship or adoption for a child;

(37) "protective services records" means records of the department developed under the authority of AS 47.10; AS 47.14; and AS 47.17;

(38) "regular volunteer" means an individual who volunteers for at least one day a week for at least five consecutive weeks;

(39) "relative" means an individual who is related to another by blood, adoption, marriage, or tribal custom;

(40) "residential care" means care in a residential child care facility;

(41) "residential child care facility" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900;

(42) "respite placement" means placement of a child to provide temporary relief for the child's primary caregiver for a period usually not exceeding 30 days;

(43) "runaway child" has the meaning given "runaway minor" in AS 47.10.390;

(44) "shelter home" means a foster home exclusively for runaway children;

(45) "state placing worker" means an employee of the department with regard to the placement of children;

(46) "treatment" means a series of planned interventions designed to address a child's physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and developmental disorders and bring about positive measurable changes needed to facilitate the child's successful functioning and return to its family;

(47) "worker" has the meaning given "child placing worker."