Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia
Department 290 - RULES OF DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
Chapter 290-9 - OFFICE OF REGULATORY SERVICES
Subject 290-9-2 - RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR CHILD-PLACING AGENCIES
Rule 290-9-2-.01 - Definitions

(a) "Adoption" means a social and legal process designed to establish a new legal parent/child relationship giving a child the same rights and benefits of a child who is born to the prospective adoptive parent(s).

(b) "Adult" means a person 18 years of age or older. An adult does not include a foster child living in a foster home.

(c) "Applicant" means the following:

(d) "Behavior management" means those principles and techniques used by an Agency to assist a child in facilitating self-control, addressing inappropriate behavior, and achieving positive outcomes in a constructive and safe manner. Behavior management principles and techniques shall be used in accordance with the individual service plan, written policies and procedures governing service expectations, service plan goals, safety, and security, and these rules and regulations.

(e) "Biological Father" means a male who impregnated the biological mother resulting in the birth of a child.

(f) "Biological Parent" means a biological mother or biological father.

(g) "Board" means the persons or legal entity in whom the ultimate legal responsibility, authority and accountability for the conduct of the Child-Placing Agency is vested.

(h) "Caseworker" means a person employed by the Agency who provides direct placement services and supervision following placements.

(i) "Casework supervisor" means a person employed by the Agency who is responsible for the supervision of the placement services offered by the Agency and for the designation of approval for the prospective adoptive and foster families to receive children for care.

(j) "Chemical restraint" means medications that are administered to manage a child's behavior in a way that reduces the safety risk to the child or others; that have the temporary effect of restricting the child's freedom of movement; and that are not being used as part of a standard regimen, as specified in the child's service plan, to treat current symptoms of a medical or psychiatric condition.

(k) "Child" means a person under 18 years of age for adoption purposes and under the age of 19 for foster care purposes.

(l) "Child-Placing Agency" or "Agency" means any institution, society, agency, or facility, whether incorporated or not, which places children in foster homes for temporary care or in prospective adoptive homes for adoption. For purposes of this definition, agencies that engage in placement activities are required to be licensed as Child-Placing Agencies. This term does not apply to a licensed professional providing only home study preparation services as an evaluator.

(m) "Child placement," or "placement activity" means the selection, by a person or Agency other than the child's parent or guardian, of a foster family or prospective adoptive family, or effecting the movement of the child into the foster family or prospective adoptive family. This definition includes any preparation of a home study of a foster home or of a prospective adoptive home. Counseling with respect to options available, legal services, or services as an agent for the purpose of notice of revocation of consent by the biological parent does not constitute child placement under this definition. For purposes of this rule, this definition does not include the Department or a licensed professional providing only home study preparation services as an evaluator.

(n) "Criminal history background check" means a search as required by law of the criminal records maintained by law enforcement authorities to determine whether the applicant has a criminal record as defined in these rules.

(o) "Criminal record" means:

(p) "Department" means the Georgia Department of Human Services.

(q) "Emergency safety interventions" mean those behavioral intervention techniques that are authorized under an approved emergency safety intervention plan and are utilized by properly trained staff or foster parent(s) in an urgent situation to prevent a child from doing immediate physical harm to self or others or those behavior intervention techniques used by prospective adoptive or foster parents in an urgent situation to prevent a child from doing immediate physical harm to self or others.

(r) "Emergency safety intervention plan" means the plan developed by the Agency utilizing a nationally recognized, evidence-based, training program for emergency safety intervention, approved by the Department. The plan shall clearly identify the emergency safety interventions that staff and foster parents are authorized to utilize with a child and those interventions that are prohibited.

(s) "Employee" or "Personnel" means any person, other than the director, employed by an Agency, with or without compensation, who performs any duties, which involve personal contact between that person and any child being cared for in a foster home or in a prospective adoptive home or has access to confidential information of a foster child, foster family, adoptive family or staff.

(t) "Evaluator" means a person or Agency authorized by law to conduct a home study. An evaluator shall be a Child-Placing Agency, the Department, or a licensed professional with at least two years of adoption related professional experience, including a licensed clinical social worker, licensed master social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, or licensed professional counselor.

(u) "Director" means the person responsible for overall administration of an Agency.

(v) "Facilitator" means an individual or Agency who is engaged in the matching of biological parents with adoptive parents. This term does not apply to a person or Agency who refers biological parents, prospective adoptive parents and children to licensed Child-Placing Agencies for adoption services.

(w) "Fingerprint records check determination" means a satisfactory or unsatisfactory determination by the Department based upon a records check comparison of Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) information with fingerprints and other information in a records check application.

(x) "Foster care" means supervised care for a child in a home other than the child's own home on a 24-hour full-time basis for a temporary period of time.

(y) "Foster family" or "foster home" means a private home where the foster parent(s) live which has been approved by the Agency to provide 24-hour care, lodging, supervision and maintenance for no more than six foster children under the age of 19, unless limited exceptions apply in accordance with these rules and regulations.

(z) "Foster parent(s)" means the adult member(s) of a foster family who provides supervision and care in a parental role for a child in foster care and who has a satisfactory criminal history background check determination.

(aa) "Home study" means assessment of the home environment of an applicant to determine suitability of that environment as a foster home or a prospective adoptive home.

(bb) "Inducements" mean any financial assistance, either direct or indirect, from whatever source. The term "inducements" shall not include:

(cc) "Legal Father" means a male who has not surrendered or had terminated his rights to a child and who:

(dd) "Legal Mother" means the female who is the biological or adoptive mother of the child and who has not surrendered or had terminated her rights to the child.

(ee) "License" means a document issued by the Department that grants permission for the holder to provide placement services.

(ff) "Manual hold" means the application of physical force, without the use of any device, for the purpose of restricting the free movement of a child's body and is considered a form of restraint. A manual hold does not include briefly holding a child without undue force to calm or comfort the child, holding a child by the hand or by the shoulders or back to walk the child safely from one area to another where the child is not forcefully resisting the assistance, or assisting the child in voluntarily participating in activities of daily living.

(gg) "Mechanical restraint" means a device attached or adjacent to the resident's body that is not a prescribed and approved medical protection device and that he or she cannot easily remove that restricts freedom of movement or normal access to his or her body. A mechanical restraint does not include devices used to assist patients with appropriate positioning or posture secondary to physical impairments or disabilities.

(hh) "Medicaid Rehabilitation Option Provider (MRO)" means that category of behavioral health services designed for the maximum reduction of impairments related to mental illness or addiction and restoration of a Medicaid recipient to his/her best possible functional level.

(ii) "Out-of-state licensed agency" means an agency or entity that is licensed in another state or country to place children for adoption.

(jj) "Owner" means any individual or any person affiliated with a corporation, partnership, or association with 10 percent or greater ownership interest in the business or agency licensed as a Child-Placing Agency and who:

(kk) "Preliminary records check application" means an application for a preliminary records check determination.

(ll) "Preliminary records check determination" means a satisfactory or unsatisfactory determination by the Department based only upon a comparison of Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) information with other than fingerprint information regarding the person upon whom the records check is being performed.

(mm) "Prospective adoptive family" or "prospective adoptive home" means a family unit (which may include a single parent family unit) and their place of residence approved by an Agency to receive a child for adoption.

(nn) "Prospective adoptive parent(s)" means the adult member(s) of a prospective adoptive family who expect to assume all legal and social obligations and privileges of parent(s) through the legal adoption of a child.

(oo) "Reasonable and prudent parenting" means the standard characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child while at the same time encouraging the emotional and developmental growth of the child, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care under the responsibility of the State to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities.

(pp) "Record(s)" means the individual files in any format established and maintained by a Child-Placing Agency which include data concerning an employee, director, child, an applicant, a prospective adoptive family, and/or foster family.

(qq) "Records check application" means two sets of classifiable fingerprints, a records search fee to be established by the Department by rule and regulation, payable in such form as the Department may direct to cover the cost of a fingerprint records check, and an affidavit by the applicant disclosing the nature and date of any arrest, charge, or conviction of the applicant for the violation of any law; except for motor vehicle parking violations, whether or not the violation occurred in this state, and such additional information as the Department may require.

(rr) "Room, Board and Watchful Oversight" means providing safe lodging, adequately nutritious meals, and continuous care and oversight to ensure a child's basic needs are met.

(ss) "Satisfactory criminal history background check determination" means a written determination that a person for whom a records check was performed was found to have no criminal record.

(tt) "Seclusion" means the involuntary confinement of a child away from other children, due to imminent risk of harm to self or others, in a room or an area from which the child is physically prevented from leaving.

(uu) "Serious occurrence" means an occurrence that has or may have dangerous or significant consequences relating to the care, supervision, or treatment of a child.

(vv) "Sponsoring agency" means a Georgia Child-Placing Agency that serves as the primary coordinating agency with the foreign authorities, prospective adoptive parent(s), and children being placed through inter-country adoptions.

(ww) "Supervision" means the continued responsibility of the Agency to take reasonable action to provide for the health, safety, and well-being of a child in care while under the supervision of a director, employees, contractors, volunteers, foster parents and prospective adoptive parents of the Agency, including protection from physical, emotional, social, moral, financial harm and personal exploitation while in care. The Agency is responsible for providing the degree of supervision indicated by a child's age, developmental level, physical, emotional, and social needs.

(xx) "Time-out" means a behavior management technique that involves the brief separation of a child from the group or setting where the child is experiencing some behavioral or emotional distress, not to exceed twenty (20) minutes, designed to deescalate the emotionally charged condition of the child. During "time-out" a child's freedom of movement is not physically restricted.

(yy) "Unsatisfactory criminal history background check determination" means a written determination that a person for whom a records check was performed has a criminal record.

(zz) "Variance" means a decision by the Department to grant a modification to all or part of the literal requirements of a rule.

(aaa) "Waiver" means a written decision by the Department not to apply all or part of a rule.

(bbb) The singular includes the plural, the plural the singular, and the masculine the feminine, when consistent with the intent of these Rules.