New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 3A - CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Chapter 22 - REQUIREMENTS FOR CP&P ADOPTIONS
Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 3A:22-1.3 - Definitions

The following words and terms used in this chapter shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Adoption registry services" means services to an adult adoptee to find a member of his or her birth family; services to an adoptive parent of a minor adoptee to assist him or her in securing medical information or in dealing with identity issues related to adoption; or services to a birth family member who has a desire or need for knowledge of or contact with a child who was placed for adoption.

"Adoptive applicant" means a person who has applied to the Division to adopt a child.

"Adoptive parent" means a person with whom a child has been placed by the Division for adoption or who has adopted a child.

"Adoptive placement" means the placement of a child in an adoptive home by the Division for the purpose of adoption. For foster home adoptions, the adoptive placement begins on the date the Division consent for adoption is signed by the local office manager. For a selected adoptive home placement, the adoptive placement begins on the date the child is placed in the home.

"Adult adoptee" means an individual 18 years of age or older whose adoptive placement was made by the Division or its predecessor agencies, that is, the Bureau of Children's Services, the State Board of Child Welfare or the State Board of Children's Guardians.

"Birth family member" means a person, or a relative of a person, whose child was placed for adoption through the Division or its predecessor agencies.

"Child" means any person under 18 years of age.

"Child-specific recruitment" means seeking a select adoptive parent for a particular child.

"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Children and Families.

"Division" means the Division of Child Protection and Permanency in the Department of Children and Families.

"Finalization" means the entry of a legal order of adoption issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 9:3-38 et seq.

"General recruitment" means attending community events or distributing literature to raise community awareness of the general needs for adoptive parents or resource families willing to parent a child with special needs.

"Home study" means the Division's formal assessment of the capacity and readiness of prospective adoptive parents to adopt a child, including the Division's written report and recommendation.

"Licensed adoptive applicant" means a person who is a resource family parent licensed in accordance with N.J.A.C. 3A:51 or a person who has been approved as an out-of-State adoptive parent.

"Office of Licensing" means the Office of Licensing in the New Jersey Department of Children and Families.

"Post-adoption services" means all services, other than adoption registry services, offered by or through the auspices of the Department of Children and Families to any party involved in an adoption after finalization of the adoption.

"Post-placement services" means any and all services offered by or through the auspices of the Division to any member of an adoptive family from the time of the placement of the child for foster or adoptive purposes by the Division to the time of finalization of the adoption.

"Recruitment" means enhancing public awareness of issues related to adoption through the use of public service announcements, social events, newspaper series, videos, educational displays, public speaking engagements and the dissemination of literature for the purpose of developing new adoptive homes for special needs children.

"Resource family parent" means a person who is licensed by the Office of Licensing in accordance with N.J.A.C. 3A:51 to provide resource family care, including a person who is licensed to have a child or children placed with him or her for the purpose of adoption.

"Selected adoptive home" means a licensed or approved (if out-of-State) adoptive applicant who provides or wants to provide an adoptive home to a child who does not reside with the licensed adoptive applicant as a foster child.

"Special needs child" means any child as specified in N.J.A.C. 3A:23-1.2, who the State of New Jersey or a private adoption agency licensed to operate in New Jersey has the legal right to place for adoption, but who is reasonably expected to be hard to place due to difficulty in finding a prospective adoptive home for a special needs child.

"Targeted recruitment" means focusing on adoptive parents for particular groups of special needs children, such as adolescents or children with emotional or physical problems.