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GLOSSARY OF
TERMS
Adoption:
Adoption is a service provided for children who cannot be
reared by their birth parents and who need and can benefit
from new and permanent family ties established through legal
adoption.
Adoption
Exchange:
A recruitment and referral agency, which helps social
workers, find adoptive families for special needs children.
The exchange does not place children.
Adoption
Assistance Program (Subsidy):
Financial, medical, or social service assistance provided to
the adopting parents to provide for the needs of an eligible
special needs child.
Consent
to Adopt:
A Consent to Adopt is a legal document the birth parents
sign which releases all of their parental rights to the
child to the specific adoptive parents they have selected.
It cannot be signed until a minimum of 72 hours has elapsed
from the time of a child’s birth. Once signed and properly
witnessed and notarized, it cannot be revoked by the birth
parent. Nevada law requires that Consents to Adopt be
witnessed by a social worker employed by a licensed child
placing agency, or an agency which provides child welfare
services, unless one of the adoptive parents is related to
the child within the third degree of consanguinity.
Finalization:
The process in district court, in which an adoption is
recognized by the law as final, and the adopted child is
considered in the same relationship to you as though he/she
were born to you. In Nevada, the child must have resided in
the adoptive home for a minimum of six months before
finalization can take place.
Foster
Care:
Temporary care for children by families who are licensed by
the Division of Child and Family Services or other public
child welfare agency, which provides child welfare,
services.
Home
study:
This is a written report completed by a social worker, after
compiling the information contained in your application,
personal references, medical and law enforcement reports,
individual and/or group interviews, and required home
visits. During this process the worker evaluates the family
motivation for adoption, expectations, parenting skills,
ability to support a child, etc. An approved home study does
not guarantee placement of a child.
Independent/Private Adoption:
An adoption arranged directly between birth parents and
adoptive parents. Also known as specific adoption.
International/Intercountry Adoption:
International adoption, also known as intercountry or
foreign adoption, involves the legal adoption of a child
from a country other than the United States by an American
citizen, or the adoption of a child from the United States
by a resident of a foreign country.
Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC):
The ICPC is a formal agreement between states to facilitate
and regulate the placement of children into or from another
state; including adoptive placements.
Legal
risk placement:
Adoptive placement of children who are not yet legally free
for adoption, i.e., the parental rights of one or both
parents have not yet been terminated or relinquished.
Life
book:
Life books are a collections of drawings, report cards,
pictures, etc., that tells the story of the life of a child.
They generally include a narrative describing the child’s
history. The process of compiling a life book helps the
child establish a better sense of self and identity and is
especially important for children being adopted.
Non-identifying information:
Information about the child such as birth date, birthplace,
hospital, birth weight/length, medical/psychological history
of the child, whether or not the child has siblings, their
sex and age at the time of adoptive placement. It also
includes information on the birth parents, such as their age
at time of the adoption, ethnic background, marital status,
height, weight, eye and hair coloring, religion, and
complete medical and psychological background, without
revealing the identity of the birth parents.
Parent
support group:
A group of concerned adults and adoptive families who come
together for the common purpose of promoting adoptions, and
supporting each other and their children through education,
information, and social gatherings.
Relinquishment:
Refers to a legal process through which a birth or legal
parent voluntarily surrenders their parental rights with the
intent that the child will be adopted. Relinquishment in
Nevada can only be accepted by a public child welfare agency
or a licensed child placing (adoption) agency.
Social
Summary/Social History:
Refers to a cumulative document in which all information
regarding a child’s life is maintained, to be shared with
appropriate caregivers to ensure continuity of care. This
information includes all known family history (including
hereditary problems or conditions), in addition to the
child’s personality, temperament, habits and the current
status of the child’s physical and emotional health,
strengths and needs.
Special
Needs Child:
Means a child for whom placement with an adoptive family is
made more difficult because of the child’s age, race, number
of siblings, or because the child suffers from a severe or
chronic medical, physical, mental or emotional condition.
Generally, a child over the age of five years, a member of a
sibling group who need to be placed together, a member of a
minority ethnic group, and/or children of any age who
experience behavioral, developmental, physical or medical
challenges are considered special needs.
Termination of parental rights:
Means an involuntary Court action that permanently ends the
legal parent-child relationship, rendering the child legally
free for adoption.
Third
degree of consanguinity:
Child’s relatives- limited to parent, grandparent, brother,
sister, great-grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece, and nephew. |
