§ 5902. Definitions—Article II [Contingently repealed; effective until contingency met]
As used in this compact:
(1) “Child” means a person who, by reason of minority, is legally subject to parental,
guardianship, or similar control.
(2) “Sending agency” means a party state, officer or employee thereof; a subdivision of
a party state, or officer, or employee thereof; a court of a party state; a person,
corporation, association, charitable agency, or other entity which sends, brings,
or causes to be sent or brought any child to another party state.
(3) “Receiving state” means the state to which a child is sent, brought, or caused to
be sent or brought, whether by public authorities or private persons or agencies,
and whether for placement with state or local public authorities or for placement
with private agencies or persons.
(4) “Placement” means the arrangement for the care of a child in a family free or boarding
home or in a child-caring agency or institution but does not include any institution
caring for the mentally ill, mentally defective, or epileptic or any institution primarily
educational in character, and any hospital or other medical facility. (Added 1971, No. 219 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 4, 5, eff. April 5, 1972.)
§ 5902. Definitions [Contingently enacted]
As used in this chapter:
(1) “Approved placement” means the public child placing agency in the receiving state
has determined that the placement is both safe and suitable for the child.
(2) “Assessment” means an evaluation of a prospective placement by a public child placing
agency in the receiving state to determine if the placement meets the individualized
needs of the child, including but not limited to the child’s safety and stability,
health and well-being, and mental, emotional, and physical development. An assessment
is only applicable to a placement by a public child placing agency.
(3) “Child” means an individual who has not attained 18 years of age.
(4) “Certification” means to attest, declare, or swear to before a judge or notary public.
(5) “Default” means the failure of a member state to perform the obligations or responsibilities
imposed upon it by this Compact, the bylaws, or rules of the Interstate Commission.
(6) “Home Study” means an evaluation of a home environment conducted in accordance with
the applicable requirements of the state in which the home is located, and documents
the preparation and the suitability of the placement resource for placement of a child
in accordance with the laws and requirements of the state in which the home is located.
(7) “Indian tribe” means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community
of Indians recognized as eligible for services provided to Indians by the Secretary
of the Interior because of their status as Indians, including any Alaskan native village
as defined in section 3(c) of the Alaska Native Claims settlement Act at 43 U.S.C. § 1602(c).
(8) “Interstate Commission for the Placement of Children” means the commission that is
created under section 5908 of this title and that is generally referred to as the Interstate Commission.
(9) “Jurisdiction” means the power and authority of a court to hear and decide matters.
(10) “Legal Risk Placement” (Legal Risk Adoption) means a placement made preliminary to
an adoption where the prospective adoptive parents acknowledge in writing that a child
can be ordered returned to the sending state or the birth mother’s state of residence,
if different from the sending state, and a final decree of adoption shall not be entered
in any jurisdiction until all required consents are obtained or are dispensed with
in accordance with applicable law.
(11) “Member state” means a state that has enacted this Compact.
(12) “Noncustodial parent” means a person who, at the time of the commencement of court
proceedings in the sending state, does not have sole legal custody of the child or
has joint legal custody of a child, and who is not the subject of allegations or findings
of child abuse or neglect.
(13) “Nonmember state” means a state that has not enacted this Compact.
(14) “Notice of residential placement” means information regarding a placement into a residential
facility provided to the receiving state, including but not limited to the name, date
and place of birth of the child, the identity and address of the parent or legal guardian,
evidence of authority to make the placement, and the name and address of the facility
in which the child will be placed. Notice of residential placement shall also include
information regarding a discharge and any unauthorized absence from the facility.
(15) “Placement” means the act by a public or private child placing agency intended to
arrange for the care or custody of a child in another state.
(16) “Private child placing agency” means any private corporation, agency, foundation,
institution, or charitable organization or any private person or attorney that facilitates,
causes, or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to another and that
is not an instrumentality of the state or acting under color of state law.
(17) “Provisional placement” means a determination made by the public child placing agency
in the receiving state that the proposed placement is safe and suitable, and, to the
extent allowable, the receiving state has temporarily waived its standards or requirements
otherwise applicable to prospective foster or adoptive parents so as to not delay
the placement. Completion of the receiving state requirements regarding training for
prospective foster or adoptive parents shall not delay an otherwise safe and suitable
placement.
(18) “Public child placing agency” means any government child welfare agency or child protection
agency or a private entity under contract with such an agency, regardless of whether
they act on behalf of a state, county, municipality, or other governmental unit, that
facilitates, causes, or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to
another.
(19) “Receiving state” means the state to which a child is sent, brought, or caused to
be sent or brought.
(20) “Relative” means someone who is related to the child as a parent, step-parent, sibling
by half or whole blood or by adoption, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or first cousin or
a non-relative with such significant ties to the child that the person may be regarded
as a relative as determined by the court in the sending state.
(21) “Residential facility” means a facility providing a level of care that is sufficient
to substitute for parental responsibility or foster care and is beyond what is needed
for assessment or treatment of an acute condition. For purposes of the Compact, residential
facilities do not include institutions primarily educational in character, hospitals,
or other medical facilities.
(22) “Rule” means a written directive, mandate, standard, or principle issued by the Interstate
Commission promulgated pursuant to section 5911 of this title that is of general applicability and that implements, interprets, or prescribes a
policy or provision of the Compact. “Rule” has the force and effect of an administrative
rule in a member state and includes the amendment, repeal, or suspension of an existing
rule.
(23) “Sending state” means the state from which the placement of a child is initiated.
(24) “Service member’s permanent duty station” means the military installation where an
active duty U.S. Armed Forces member is currently assigned and is physically located
under competent orders that do not specify the duty as temporary.
(25) “Service member’s state of legal residence” means the state in which the active duty
U.S. Armed Forces member is considered a resident for tax and voting purposes.
(26) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas
Islands, and any other territory of the United States.
(27) “State court” means a judicial body of a state that is vested by law with responsibility
for adjudicating cases involving abuse, neglect, deprivation, delinquency, or status
offenses of individuals who have not attained 18 years of age.
(28) “Supervision” means monitoring provided by the receiving state once a child has been
placed in a receiving state pursuant to this Compact. (Contingently added 2021, No. 101 (Adj. Sess.), § 2.)