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| ADOPTED |
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| AHG |
| (The) Arizona Heart Gallery |
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| CASA |
| Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA is the only volunteer
organization that empowers everyday citizens as officers of the
court. In an overburdened social welfare system, abused and
neglected children often slip through the cracks among hundreds
of current cases. CASA volunteers change that. Appointed by
judges, CASA volunteers typically handle just one case at a
time—and commit to staying on that case until the child is
placed in a safe, permanent home. While others may come and go,
CASA volunteers provide that one constant that children need in
order to thrive.4 |
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| CERTIFIED TO ADOPT |
| definition coming soon |
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| CONFIDENTIALITY |
| The legally required process of keeping secret; the legally
and ethically required principle and practice which compels
adoption attorneys, social workers, employees of adoption
agencies, court personnel and other professionals to not
disclose identifying or other significant information about the
parties to an adoption, without legal authority and the written
consent of the involved parties to do so.¹ |
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| DES |
| Department of Economic Security, Division of Children, Youth
and Families |
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| FOST-ADOPT |
| A child placement in which birth parents' rights have not
yet been severed by the court or in which birth parents are
appealing the court's decision but foster parents agree to adopt
the child if/when parental rights are terminated. Social workers
place the child with specially-trained foster-adopt parents who
will work with the child during family reunification efforts but
who will adopt the child if the child becomes available for
adoption. The main reason for making such a placement is to
spare the child another move.¹ |
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| FOSTER CARE |
| Placing a child in the temporary care of a family other than
its own as the result of problems or challenges that are taking
place within the birth family, or while critical elements of an
adoption are being completed.¹ |
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| GROUP HOME |
| A homelike setting in which a number of unrelated children
live for varying time periods. Group homes may have one set of
house parents or may have a rotating staff and some therapeutic
or treatment group homes have specially-trained staff to assist
children with emotional and behavioral difficulties.² |
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| HOME STUDY |
| A home study is sometimes called an "adoption study," and is
a written report containing the findings of the social worker
who has met on several occasions with the prospective adoptive
parents, has visited their home, and who has investigated the
health, medical, criminal, family and home background of the
adoptive parents. If there are other individuals that are also
living in the home of the adoptive parents, they will be
interviewed and investigated, if necessary, by the social worker
and included as part of the home study. The purpose of the home
study is to help the court determine whether the adoptive
parents are qualified to adopt a child, based on the criteria
that have been established by state law.¹ |
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| IEP |
| A written plan for educational support services and their
expected outcomes, which is developed for students who are
enrolled in special education programs.¹ |
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| KINSHIP CARE |
| The full-time care and nurturing of a child by someone who
is related to the child by family ties or by a significant prior
relationship connection.¹ |
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| LEGALLY FREE |
| Since a child can have only one set of legal parents at a
time, when the parental rights of a child's biological parents
are legally terminated, either by their death, legal consent, or
by a forced termination by the court, then the child becomes
legally "free" to be adopted by another set of legal parents.¹ |
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| LICENSED TO FOSTER |
| definition coming soon |
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| NOT ACCEPTING INQUIRIES |
| definition coming soon |
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| PARENT ORIENTATION |
| definition coming soon |
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| PLACED |
| definition coming soon |
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| PLACEMENT PENDING |
| A family has been identified to potentially adopt this
child. Once this occurs, there is a transition period when the
family and the child get to know one another. This can take
weeks or even months. Once the child is placed with the family,
then this status will change to "placed" and the photo will be
removed. Sometimes a "placement pending" notation will be
removed and the child will again have an open status of
available for adoption. This occurs when the chosen family and
the child turn out not to be a match. This can happen for any
number of reasons. It would be incorrect to assume that "there
is something wrong with the child." If you are interested in
a child with a "placement pending" status, please check the
website periodically to see if the status changes. If the
"placement pending" wording is removed, you are encouraged to
place an inquiry on this child. |
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| PS-MAPP |
| A mandatory 30 hour PS-MAPP training, which includes
information about development, issues specific to children in
foster care & strategies for successful parenting. PS-MAPP is
designed to help families make an informed decision about
becoming foster, adoptive or foster/adoptive families.³ |
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| SPECIAL NEEDS |
| This is a broad term that refers to disabilities and
challenges faced by certain children. Special needs can be
physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, or educational. Some
common special needs among children waiting to be adopted
include hearing, vision and speech problems, cerebral palsy,
learning disabilities, attachment disorders, depression, Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The term "special needs" also encompasses certain "placement
factors" that can make finding an adoptive home more
challenging. These factors differ from place to place. For
example, one city may have many more boys waiting to be adopted
than girls or may have many more children of a certain race than
other races. But generally speaking, special needs factors
include, age, minority race, gender, sibling status, legal risk
and risk factors.² |
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| THERAPEUTIC FOSTER HOME |
| A foster home in which the foster parents have received
special training to care for a wide variety of children and
adolescents, usually those with significant emotional or
behavioral problems. Parents in therapeutic foster homes are
more closely supervised and assisted more than parents in
regular foster homes.² |
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| WAITING CHILDREN |
| This term generally refers to non-infant, school age
children, who have become legally available for adoption. They
will generally be under the legal jurisdiction and care of
public foster care agencies, and will have come into the foster
care system for a variety of reasons, which could include
neglect, abandonment, abuse and/or some other dysfunction within
their family environment. |
| Waiting children may or may not have developed emotional
and/or behavioral reactions to these experiences, and may or may
not be physically or developmentally challenges or delayed as a
natural result of what they have been through. How severe and
treatable these conditions will be will depend entirely on the
individual circumstances of each child. By the same token, a
significant percentage of waiting children will be healthy and
well cared for, but will have become victims of some type of
family tragedy that has put them in a position where they need
responsible parenting. |
| Many waiting children will have siblings who are also
available for adoption, and who would prefer to stay together as
a family unit. In most geographic locations, more than half of
the waiting children will be ethnically diverse or will be
children of color. Two things that all "Waiting Children" will
have in common are: 1) their need to become a permanent part of
a responsible and nurturing family, where they will be loved and
encouraged to achieve their full potential, and 2) although
imperfect and most often challenging, they can bring tremendous
joy and satisfaction for their new families.¹ |
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Please Note:
these definitions are intended to give a brief description of
the term. |
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Please contact
1-877-KIDSNEEDU for further explanation/details. |
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¹http://www.glossary.adoption.com
²http://www.adopting.org/adoptions/adoption-and-foster-care-glossary.html
³http://www.azfamily.com/areyoumyfamily/docs/theprocess.pdf
4http://www.nationalcasa.org
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