Scope and Definitions

PURPOSE: This rule clarifies the terms used in the licensing rules for child placing agencies. (1) The following principles shall apply to all decisions made pursuant to this chapter: (A) The safety and welfare of children is paramount; (B) All providers of direct services to children and their families will be evaluated in a uniform, transparent, objective, and consistent basis; (C) Services to children and their families shall be provided in a timely manner to maximize the opportunity for successful outcomes, and such services shall be tracked and routinely evaluated through a quality assurance program; (D) Any provider of direct services to children and families shall have the appropriate and relevant training, education, and expertise to provide the highest quality of services possible which shall be consistent with federal and state standards; (E) Resources and efforts of the division and child placing agencies shall be committed to pursue the best possible opportunity for a successful outcome for each child. In the case of children and youth who are in the foster care system, successful outcomes may include preparing youth for a productive and successful life as an adult outside the foster care system, such as independent living. For those providers that work with children requiring intensive twenty-four- (24-) hour treatment services, successful outcomes shall be based on the least restrictive alternative possible based on the child’s needs as well as the quality of care received; and (F) All licensed service providers shall prioritize methods of reducing or eliminating a child’s need for residential treatment through community-based services and supports. (2) Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions of terms specified in sections 210.110, 210.481, and 210.1253, RSMo, and 13 CSR 35-71.010 and 13 CSR 35-71.015 shall apply to all regulations in this chapter (13 CSR 35-73). The singular includes the plural and the plural includes the singular. In addition, the following terms are defined as: (A) “Adoption” means the act of receiving a child into one’s family by choice and acquiring a parent-child relationship by legal process; (B) “Adoption agency” means a licensed public or private organization whose purpose or parts of its purpose is to provide adoption services to children, adoptees, adoptive applicants, and birth and/or adoptive parents; (C) “Adoption services” means the provision of pre-placement or foster care services to birth and/or adoptive parents, the completion of birth parent social and medical histories, the completion of adoptive family assessments, post-placement services to birth and/or adoptive parents, post-adoption services to birth and/or adoptive parents, or other related activities, including those requested by courts and other adoption agencies and organizations; (D) “Adoptive applicant” means a prospective adoptive parent who has applied to adopt a child but who has not yet received a child for adoptive placement. It also includes an adoptive parent who has adopted one (1) or more children and who is requesting to adopt another child; (E) “Adoptive parent” means a person with whom a child has been placed for adoption or who has adopted one (1) or more children; (F) “Alternative care” means care provided a child in a foster home, a group home, residential treatment agency, child care institution, or any combination thereof; (G) “Background check” means the background check required by section 210.493, RSMo, and 13 CSR 35-71.015; (H) “Birth parent(s)” means the biological father and/or mother of a child; (I) “Child” means any person under eighteen (18) years of age; (J) “Child placing agency” means any person or organization, other than the parents, who places a child outside the home of the child’s parents or guardian, or advertises or holds him/herself forth as performing such services, but excluding the attorney, physician, or clergyman of the parents per section 453.014(4), RSMo; (K) “Confidentiality” means complying with all federal and state laws governing the confidentiality of both identifying and nonidentifying information about clients, families, and other individuals receiving services from a licensed child placing agency; (L) “Custody” means the right of care and control of a child and the duty to provide food, clothing, shelter, ordinary medical care, education, and discipline for a child. Temporary custody of a child may be granted for a limited time only, usually pending further action or review by the court; (M) “Director” means the director of the Children’s Division; (N) “Division” means the Children’s Division of the Department of Social Services; (O) “Facility” is any building of a licensed agency in which children reside; (P) “Family Assessment” means a formal evaluation of the capacity and readiness of foster parent or adoptive applicants to receive a child, which includes a written report and recommendation; (Q) “Finalization” means the issuance of a court order by an appropriate court which declares the child to be the child of adoptive petitioners as though born to them with full rights of inheritance; (R) “Foster care,” see alternative care; (S) “Foster Home” means a private residence of one (1) or more family members providing twenty-four- (24-) hour care to one (1) or more, but less than six (6) children who are unattended by parent or guardian and who are unrelated to either foster parent by blood, marriage, or adoption; (T) “Foster parent” means a person of age twenty-one (21) or older who is licensed to provide twenty-four- (24-) hour care to one (1) or more, but less than six (6), children who are unattended by parent or guardian, and who is unrelated to the child(ren) by blood, marriage, or adoption; (U) “Governing body” means the legal entity with ultimate authority and responsibility for the agency’s overall operation; (V) “Home study,” see family assessment; (W) “ICAMA” means the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA). A contract enacted into law among twenty-eight (28) states (as of May 1994) whereby medical assistance (Medicaid) may be granted to an adopted child in the state where the child lives, based upon certain criteria, one (1) of which is the provision of adoption subsidy through an agreement between an agency and the adoptive parents; (X) “ICPC” means the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC). A contract enacted into law among the fifty (50) states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands whereby approval must be obtained from the receiving state ICPC office prior to the placement of a child across state lines for the purpose of adoption or certain other types of placement; (Y) “ICWA” means the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA); (Z) “Immediate family” means a person related within the third degree of blood, marriage, or adoption-parent, grandparent, brother, sister, half brothers, half sisters, stepparent, stepbrothers, stepsisters, uncle, aunt, or first cousin; (AA) “Independent adoption” means the placement of a child with a prospective adoptive parent by a birth parent or some other person, acting as allowed by state law, as an intermediary. Also referred to as a private, identified, or designated adoption; (BB) “International adoption” means the adoption of a child from a country other than the United States or of a child who is not a United States citizen by birth or naturalization; (CC) “Legal father” is the husband of a natural mother at the time the child was conceived; (DD) “MEPA” means Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA), Public Law 103-382 as amended; (EE) “Office” means the place where business is transacted and where the functions of an agency are performed; (FF) “Operating capital” means sufficient assets on hand to cover the initial start-up expenses for the initial period of licensure; (GG) “Permanency plan” means moving children to permanent homes, birth or adoptive, in a purposeful and timely manner; (HH) “Placement services” means any and all services offered to prospective adoptive children and families, ranging from selection of a particular family for a particular child through the physical arrival of the child in the adoptive home; (II) “Post-legal adoption services” means any and all services offered to any party involved in an adoption after the adoption is granted or finalized by the appropriate court; (JJ) “Post-placement services” means any and all services offered to any member of an adoptive family from the placement of the child to finalization of the adoption; (KK) “Power of attorney” means an instrument authorizing another to act as one’s agent or attorney; (LL) “Pre-placement services” means any and all services offered to birth parent(s) and child(ren) to evaluate and prepare them for an adoptive placement; (MM) “Private adoption,” see independent adoption; (NN) “Private agency adoption” means the services offered by a licensed agency in placing a child for adoption; (OO) “Public agency adoption” means the services offered by a state public child welfare agency in placing a child for adoption; (PP) “Social worker” means a professional person who possesses the qualifications and appropriate licensure to work directly with children, adoptees, birth and/or adoptive parents, and other relevant individuals. If the person is a contracted person of a licensed child placing agency, such person must possess a valid license from the Division of Professional Registration and must, at a minimum, possess either a Bachelor’s Degree or a Master’s Degree in Social Work from an accredited institution; (QQ) “Subsidy/adoption assistance” means the provision of financial assistance to adoptive families who are adopting a child with special needs as defined in state and federal law; and (RR) “Termination of parental rights” (TPR) means a legal action which severs the parentchild relationship and allows the child to be adopted. AUTHORITY sections 207.020, 210.506, and 660.017, RSMo 2016, and sections 210.493 and 210.1286, RSMo Supp. 2021.* This rule originally filed as 13 CSR 40-73.010. Original rule filed Sept. 18, 1956, effective Sept. 28, 1956. Refiled: March 12, 1976. Rescinded and readopted: Filed Nov. 6, 1981, effective Feb. 11, 1982. Rescinded and readopted: Filed Oct. 13, 1982, effective Jan. 13, 1983. Amended: Filed Oct. 7, 1987, effective March 25, 1988. Rescinded and readopted: Filed Jan. 14, 1997, effective July 30, 1997. Moved to 13 CSR 35-73.010 and amended: Filed Sept. 7, 2018, effective April 30, 2019. Emergency amendment filed Sept. 17, 2021, effective Oct. 1, 2021, expired March 29, 2022. Amended: Filed Sept. 17, 2021, effective March 30, 2022. *Original authority: 207.020, RSMo 1945, amended 1961, 1965, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1993, 2014; 210.493, RSMo 2021; 210.506, RSMo 1982, amended 1993, 1995; 210.1286, RSMo 2021; and 660.017, RSMo 1993, amended 1995.