§ 1-101. Definitions
As used in this title:
(1) “Adoptee” means a person who is adopted or is to be adopted.
(2) “Adult” means a person who has attained 18 years of age.
(3) “Agency” means the Department or a child-placing public or private entity that is
licensed in this State to place minors for adoption.
(4) “Child” means a minor or an adult son or daughter, by birth or adoption.
(5) “Child with special needs” means a child with a special factor or condition, including
ethnic background, age, membership in a minority or sibling group, medical condition,
or physical, mental, or emotional disability, because of which it is reasonable to
conclude that the child cannot be placed with adoptive parents without providing adoption
or medical assistance.
(6) “Court,” with reference to a court of this State, means the Probate Division of the
Superior Court.
(7) “Department” means the Department for Children and Families.
(8) “Former parent” means the parent of the adoptee whose rights were terminated, voluntarily
or involuntarily.
(9) “Guardian” means a person, other than a parent, appointed by a court to act as a parent
for another individual and specifically authorized by the Court to place the individual
for adoption.
(10) “Identifying information” means any information which might establish the current
whereabouts of an adoptee, the adoptee’s former parent or other family member, including
full name, date and place of birth, and last known address.
(11) “Legal custody” means the right and duty to exercise continuing general supervision
of a minor as authorized by law. The term includes the right and duty to protect,
educate, nurture, and discipline the minor and to provide the minor with food, clothing,
shelter, medical care, and a supportive environment.
(12) “Minor” means a person who has not attained 18 years of age.
(13) “Parent” means a person who is legally recognized as a mother or father or whose consent
to the adoption of a minor is required under subdivision 2-401(a)(1)-(4) or (6) of
this title. The term does not include a person whose parental relationship to a child
has been terminated judicially or by operation of law.
(14) “Physical custody” means the physical care and supervision of a minor.
(15) “Place for adoption” means to select a prospective adoptive parent for a minor and
transfer physical custody of the minor to the prospective adoptive parent.
(16) “Records” means all documents, exhibits and data pertaining to an adoption, whether
collected prior to or after the decree of adoption.
(17) “Registry” means the adoption registry administered by the Department.
(18) “Relative” means a grandparent, great-grandparent, sibling, first cousin, aunt, uncle,
great-aunt, great-uncle, niece, or nephew of a person, whether related to the person
by the whole or the half blood, affinity, or adoption. The term does not include a
person’s stepparent.
(19) “Relinquishment” means the voluntary surrender to an agency by a minor’s parent or
guardian, for purposes of the minor’s adoption, of the rights of the parent or guardian
with respect to the minor, including legal and physical custody of the minor.
(20) “Sibling” means a full or half brother or sister.
(21) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction
of the United States.
(22) “State Registrar” and “State Registrar of Vital Records” mean the supervisor of the
Office of Vital Records in the Department of Health.
(23) “Stepparent” means a person who is the spouse or surviving spouse of a parent of a
child but who is not a parent of the child. (Added 1995, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a, eff. Feb. 1, 2011; 2013, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 72; 2013, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 114; 2017, No. 46, § 59, eff. July 1, 2019.)