OAR 413-020-0000: Definitions

The following definitions apply to OAR chapter 413, division 20. (1) "Adoption assistance agreement" means a written agreement, binding on the parties to the agreement, between the Department and the pre-adoptive family or adoptive family of an eligible child or young adult, setting forth the assistance the Department is to provide on behalf of the child or young adult, the responsibilities of the pre-adoptive family or adoptive family and the Department, and the manner in which the agreement and amount of assistance may be modified or terminated. (2) "Adoptive family" means an individual or individuals who have legalized a parental relationship to the child through a judgment of the court. (3) "Age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate activities" means: (a) Activities or items that are generally accepted as suitable for children or young adults of the same chronological age or level of maturity or that are determined to be developmentally appropriate for a child or young adult, based on the development of cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities that are typical for an age or age group; and (b) In the case of a specific child or young adult, activities or items that are suitable for the child based on the developmental stages attained by the child or young adult with respect to the cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities of the child or young adult. (4) "BRS" means Behavior Rehabilitation Services, a Medicaid-funded program that provides behavioral intervention, counseling, or skill building services in a professional, shelter, or residential (including therapeutic foster care formerly referred to as proctor care) placement setting. (5) "CANS screener" means an individual, who performs CANS screenings under the supervision of the Level of Care Manager or designee, and who annually completes the training in the use of the Oregon CANS Comprehensive Screening Tool with a documented reliability score of 0.70 or greater. (6) "CANS screening" means Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths screening, a process of gathering information on the needs and strengths of a child or young adult: (a) To identify case planning, service planning, and supervision needs of the child or young adult in substitute care with a certified family; (b) To determine the level of care payment while in substitute care with a certified family; and (c) To determine if a child or young adult qualifies for a level of care payment for the purpose of negotiating or renegotiating an adoption assistance or guardianship assistance payment. (7) “CANS rescreen” means a type of CANS screening that is completed when a child or young adult is living with a certified family and the certified family has observed ongoing, documented changes in behavior or functioning which: (a) Have not improved after a revision of the supervision actions and activities provided by the certified family and other individuals, and the last CANS screening was completed more than 90 days prior to the rescreen referral date; or (b) Endanger the safety of the child or young adult or the safety of others and the last CANS screening was completed more than 90 days prior to the rescreen referral date; or (c) The child or young adult has undergone a major life event or transition. (8) "Caseworker" means the agency staff person assigned primary responsibility for a child or young adult served by the Department. (9) "Certifier" means a Child Welfare employee who conducts assessments of applicants interested in providing relative or foster care to a child or young adult in the care or custody of the Department, determines whether or not to recommend approval of the operation of a relative care or foster care home, and monitors the compliance of a relative care or foster care home with Child Welfare certification rules. (10) "Child" means a person under 18 years of age. (11) "Department" means the Department of Human Services, Child Welfare. (12) "Designated Consultant Neonatologist" means a neonatologist whose services are available to Child Welfare to review medical information and consult with Child Welfare and other experts deemed necessary in cases of suspected medical neglect. (13) "Designated hospital liaison" means an individual, usually the hospital administrator, designated by each respective hospital to assist Child Welfare with coordination, consultation, and prompt notification of suspected cases of medical neglect. (14) "Disabled infant" means a child of less than one year of age having a physical or mental impairment which may substantially limit one or more major life functions such as breathing, seeing, hearing, walking, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, learning, and working. (15) "Enhanced supervision" means the additional support, direction, observation, and guidance necessary to promote and ensure the safety and well-being of a child or young adult when the child or young adult qualifies for a level of care payment. (16) "Guardian" means an individual who has been granted guardianship of the child through a judgment of the court. (17) "Guardianship assistance" means assistance provided on behalf of an eligible child or young adult to offset the costs associated with establishing the guardianship and meeting the ongoing needs of the child or young adult. "Guardianship assistance" may be in the form of payments, medical coverage, or reimbursement of nonrecurring guardianship expenses. (18) "Guardianship assistance agreement" means a written agreement, binding on the parties to the agreement, between the Department and the guardian of an eligible child or young adult setting forth the assistance the Department is to provide on behalf of the child or young adult, the responsibilities of the guardian and the Department, and the manner in which the agreement and amount of assistance may be modified or terminated. (19) "Hospital Review Committee (HRC)" is a committee established by a medical facility or hospital to offer counsel and review in cases involving a disabled infant with life-threatening conditions. (20) "Indian child" means any unmarried person who is under age 18 and either: (a) Is a member or citizen of an Indian tribe; or (b) Is eligible for membership or citizenship in an Indian tribe and is the biological child of a member or citizen of an Indian tribe. (21) "Indian custodian" means any Indian, other than the Indian child's parent, who has custody of an Indian child under applicable tribal law or custom or under applicable state law, or to whom temporary physical care, custody, and control has been transferred by the Indian child's parent. (22) "Legal custodian" means a person, agency, or institution with legal custody of a child and all of the following duties and authority: (a) To have physical custody and control of a child. (b) To supply the child with food, clothing, shelter, and incidental necessities. (c) To provide the child with care, education, and discipline. (d) To authorize ordinary medical, dental, psychiatric, psychological, and other remedial care or treatment for the child and, in an emergency where the child's safety appears urgently to require it, to authorize surgery or other extraordinary care. (e) To make such reports and to supply such information as the court may require. (f) To apply for any benefits to which the child is entitled and to use them to pay for the child's care. (23) "Legal custody" means that a person or agency has legal authority: (a) To have physical custody and control of a child; (b) To supply the child with food, clothing, shelter and other necessities; (c) To provide the child with care, education and discipline; (d) To authorize medical, dental, psychiatric, psychological, hygienic or other remedial care or treatment for the child, and in any emergency where the child's safety appears urgently to require it, to authorize surgery or other extraordinary care; and (e) "Legal custody" includes temporary custody of a child under an order of a court. (24) "Level of care payment" means the payment provided to an approved or certified family based on the child or young adult's need for enhanced supervision as determined by applying the CANS algorithm to the results of the CANS screening. (25) "Medical neglect" means the failure to provide adequate medical care, including the withholding of medically indicated treatment, from a disabled infant with life-threatening conditions. (26) "Medical Neglect Investigator" means Child Welfare staff designated and trained to provide consultation and complete investigations of alleged medical neglect reports. (27) "Medically indicated treatment" means treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) which, in the treating physician's reasonable medical judgment, is most likely to be effective in amelioration or correcting a life-threatening condition. It does not include the failure to provide treatment other than nutrition, hydration, or medication to an infant when, in the treating physician's reasonable medical judgment, any of the following circumstances apply: (a) The infant is chronically irreversibly comatose. (b) The provision of such treatment would merely prolong dying, not be effective in ameliorating or correcting all of the infant's life-threatening conditions, or otherwise be futile in terms of survival of the infant. (c) The provisions of treatment would be virtually futile in terms of the survival of the infant and the treatment itself under such circumstances would be inhumane. (28) "Participating tribe" means a federally-recognized Indian tribe in Oregon with a Title IV-E agreement with the Department. (29) "Permanent custody" means legal custody of a child: (a) Who has been permanently committed to the Department by the juvenile court after parental rights have been terminated under ORS 419B.527; or (b) Who has been released and surrendered to the Department by the parents under ORS 418.270. (30) "Physical custodian" means a person or agency, including a child's legal or biological parent, a relative, foster parent, adoptive parent, or a licensed child-caring agency who is authorized by the Department to provide a residence and day-to-day care for a child who is in the legal custody of the Department. (31) "Potential guardian" means an individual who: (a) Has been approved by the Department or participating tribe to be a child's guardian; and (b) Is in the process of legalizing the relationship to the child through the judgment of the court. (32) "Pre-adoptive family" means an individual or individuals who: (a) Has been selected to be a child's adoptive family; and (b) Is in the process of legalizing the relationship to the child through the judgment of the court. (33) "Reasonable and prudent parent standard" means the standard, characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child or young adult while encouraging the emotional and developmental growth of the child or young adult, that a substitute care provider shall use when determining whether to allow a child or young adult to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities. (34) "Reasonable medical judgment" means a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician, knowledgeable about the case and the treatment possibilities with respect to the medical conditions involved. (35) "Relative Resource Parent" means a person defined as a "relative" under OAR 413-070-0000 who operates a home that has been approved by the Department to provide care for a related child or young adult placed in the home by the Department. (36) "Resource parent" means a person who operates a home that has been approved by the Department to provide care for an unrelated child or young adult placed in the home by the Department. (37) "Substitute care" means the out-of-home placement of a child or young adult who is in the legal or physical custody and care of the Department. (38) "Supervision plan" means a documented set of strategies that is developed to assist a relative caregiver or foster parent in providing the additional support, observation, direction, and guidance necessary to promote and ensure the safety and well-being of a child or young adult. (39) "Voluntary custody" means legal custody given to the Department, by written agreement, by a parent, guardian, or Indian custodian of a child. (40) "Voluntary Custody Agreement" means a written agreement between the Department and the parent, guardian, or Indian custodian of a child, which transfers legal custody to the Department; the Department assumes all parental authority and responsibilities that the agreement does not specifically reserve to the parents, guardians or Indian custodian as permitted by state law; and the Department provides the child substitute care or treatment, or both, if the family falls within a circumstance described in OAR 413-020-0010(2)(a)-(c). (41) "Voluntary Placement Agreement" means a binding, written agreement between the Department and the parent, guardian, or Indian custodian of a child that does not transfer legal custody to the Department but that specifies, at a minimum, the legal status of the child and the rights and obligations of the parent, guardian, Indian custodian, the child, and the Department while the child is in placement. (42) “Voluntary Placement Agreement for a Young Adult” means a binding, written agreement between the Department and a qualifying young adult that does not transfer custody to the Department but that specifies, at a minimum, the legal status, rights and obligations of the young adult and the Department while the young adult is in placement. (43) "Withholding of medically indicated treatment" means the failure to respond to an infant's life-threatening condition. (44) "Young adult" means a person aged 18 through 20 years.