GLOSSARY
From: From Foster Parent to Adoptive Parent
By Michael A. Neff, P.C.

Reprinted with permission of the author

Abuse Clearance: A report obtained by the agency from the New York State Central Register on whether an adoptive parent or other household adult is the subject of an indicated report of maltreatment, inadequate guardianship or abuse of a child.

Adoption: An emotional and legal process for establishing parent-child and family relationships other than biologically but having the same legal protections and social status.

Adoption Covenant: Written, unconditional and final commitments by adoptive parents to adoptive child and the adoptee's commitment contingent upon their promise.

Adoption Information Registry: A database maintained by a state agency with which a birth parent, adoptive child and adoptive parent may register his willingness to share identifying information with the other parties to the adoption triad.

Adoption Subsidy: If a child is subsidy eligible because hard to place or handicapped as such terms are defined by law, an adopted parent may apply for and if approved receive from local government (City, County or State) monthly payments for the care and support of the child at rates that vary according to age or the child's special or exceptional needs from the date of finalization until the child becomes 21 or earlier if emancipated or no longer dependant for support upon the adoptive parent.

Adoption Triad: The three parties involved in any adoption: birth parent, adoptive child and adoptive parent.

Adoptive Placement Agreement: A contract executed by an adoptive parent and agency after the child is legally free for adoption specifying reciprocal interests and responsibilities, rights, duties and expectations, several terms of which are prescribed by law and the execution of which converts the status of a foster parent to an adoptive parent.

Attachment: An emotional and enduring but paradoxically fragile and vulnerable relationship between a child and one or more caregiving adults which is a prerequisite for development of a child's identity and trust.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A complex neurobiological condition encompassing a cluster of symptoms, including byway of illustration and not limitation, impulsivity, low tolerance for frustration, short attention span, hyperarousal and difficulties in concentrating, that cause or exacerbate cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems.

Certificate of Adoption: A document embossed with the seal of the Court attesting to adoption having the same force and effect as a certified Order of Adoption given to adoptive parents upon finalization as a memento and for use as proof of adoption until they receive the adoptive child's new Certificate of Birth.

Certificate of Disposition: A statement obtained by an adoptive parent or other household adult from the Court in which he was prosecuted for a crime reporting the disposition thereof if otherwise not shown in his criminal record review.

Claiming: An emotional process by which adoptive parents and adoptive children come to accept each other as full fledged members of a family.

Consent Father: A putative father who, promptly after the child's birth, evinces a substantial interest or commitment and establishes and maintains a substantial relationship with the child by, for example, cohabiting with the child and birth mother, visiting at least monthly or communicating with the child regularly if unable to visit, paying a fair and reasonable part or all of the medical expenses incurred by the birth mother during her pregnancy or in connection with the child's birth or paying support for the child in accordance with his means, thereby acquires the right of consent to the child's adoption and who may veto adoption by withholding consent.

Criminal History Review: A report obtained by the agency from the New York State office of Children and Family Services on whether an adoptive parent or other household adult has been convicted of a crime in the state of New York or was arrested on charges pending or not resolved.

Developmental Disability: A genetic disorder that impairs development of cognitive and motor skills of which Cerebral Palsy is one example.

Disruption: Irreconcilable differences in an adoptive family before adoption finalization that result in the replacement of the adoptive child to another home or setting.

Dissociation: The mental process of disengaging from the stimuli in the external environment and attending to inner stimuli. This is a graded mental process that ranges from normative daydreaming to pathological disturbances that may include exclusive focus on an inner fantasy world, loss of identity, disorientation, perceptual disturbances or even disruptions in identity.

Fair Hearing: Administrative review by a county or state agency of a decision made by a public or private adoption agency with a view toward affirming or reversing it.

Family Heritage: Those characteristics, attributes, traits and accomplishments of birth parents specified by law that are a child's legacy and birthright which the agency must give to adoptive parents upon adoption finalization, including the age and sex of know siblings and medical histories of the birth parents and their families.

Hyperarousal: Mental and physical changes in the central and peripheral nervous system activation to perceived or actual threat, including increased sensory and perceptual focus on the threat, activation of physiological systems required for survival and corresponding changes in emotional and behavioral functioning.

Interstate Compact Approval: Approval of the child's placement with an adoptive parent who resides out of state, or moves with the child from New York to another state, by social services officials in the receiving state.

Kinship Home: Placement of a child for foster care or adoption with a maternal or paternal blood relative or relative by marriage.

Legal Father: The husband of a woman who gives birth to a child has parental rights over the child equivalent to those of the mother even though he is not the biological father.

Legally Free: A child in foster care becomes legally free or eligible for adoption through voluntary relinquishment or death of a birth parent or parents or by Court Order terminating parental rights, the effect of which is to transfer and commit to the foster care agency the legal power to consent to the child's adoption without and in lieu of the birth parent's consent.

Lifebook: A homemade book that helps a child prepare for adoption by documenting important people and events in his life and includes pictures, drawings, school papers, reports, awards and certificates, photographs, letters and written anecdotes contributed by the adoptive parents, birth parents, the child himself and others.

Non-identifying Information: Psychosocial and historical information about a child given by an agency to adoptive parents or prospective adoptive parents that does not identify the birth parents by name.

Non-recurring Adoption Expenses: One-time expenses such as attorney's fees, interstate travel for finalization, fees for medical examinations or required documents for which an adoptive parent will be reimbursed up to a maximum of $2000.00 per child by local government provided the adoption is subsidized.

Notice Father: A putative father who, by being registered as father with the State Putative Father Registry, identified as father in the child's Certificate of Birth or by the birth mother in a sworn statement, is adjudicated the child's father by Order of Filiation or executes jointly with the birth mother and files with the Department of Health an Acknowledgment of Paternity, thereby becomes entitled to Notice of any Court proceeding involving the child, including voluntary surrender, termination of parental rights and adoption.

Putative Father: The person who claims or acknowledges or reputed to be the biological father of a child born to an unmarried woman or to a married woman who claims he and not her husband is the child's birth father.

Safety Assessment: A report prepared by the agency justifying adoption notwithstanding conviction of an adoptive parent or other household adult for one or more crimes in the State of New York.

Surrender: A document signed by a birth parent in front of a Judge relinquishing a child for adoption, the effect of which is to transfer to and empower an agency to give consent to the child's adoption without and in lieu of the birth parent's consent.

Wrongful Adoption: A cause of action an adoptive parent may have against an agency to recover damages for the agency's failure to disclose or misrepresenting the health or background of the child upon which they relied when committing themselves to adopt. |