Life Style / Adoption Glossary

Supplemental Security Income (SSI): A Federally funded needs-based disability program for adults and children which provides monthly cash benefits and, in most states, automatic Medicaid eligibility.

Surrender: Voluntary termination of parental rights. An action taken by birth parents to voluntarily 'make an adoption plan' for a child or 'relinquishment' of child for adoption.

Surrender Papers: Legal document attesting to the signator's voluntary relinquishment of parental rights to a child.

Surrogate Mother: A woman who carries another woman's child by pre-arrangement or by legal contract.

System: Often referred to as 'the public child welfare system.' Refers to the network of governmental organizations providing a range of child welfare services.

Systems of Care: A system of care is a process of partnering an array of service agencies and families, working together to provide individualized care and supports designed to help children and families ach . . . View Full Definition

Termination of Parental Rights (TPR): The legal process which involuntarily severs a parent's rights to a child.

Tertiary Prevention: Treatment efforts geared to address situations where child maltreatment has already occurred with the goals of preventing child maltreatment from occurring in the future and of avoiding the . . . View Full Definition

Therapeutic Foster Home: Also knon as Therapy 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 signific . . . View Full Definition

Tourettes Syndrome: A treatable neurological disorder that consists of involuntary 'tic' movements or vocalizations that become more apparent under stress. Common manifestations include shoulder-shrugging, neck . . . View Full Definition

Traditional Adoption: Most often used to refer to a domestic infant adoption in which confidentiality is preserved. Equivalent to a Closed adoption.

Treatment: The stage of the child protection case process when specific services are provided by CPS and other providers to reduce the risk of maltreatment, support families in meeting case goals and a . . . View Full Definition

Treatment Foster Home: A foster home in which the foster parents are trained to offer treatment to children with moderate to severe emotional problems: also known as therapeutic foster home.

Universal Prevention: Activities and services directed at the general public with the goal of stopping the occurrence of maltreatment before it starts. Also referred to as 'primary prevention.'

Unsubstantiated: An investigation disposition that determines that there is not sufficient evidence under State law or policy to conclude that the child has been maltreated or at risk of maltreatment. A CPS . . . View Full Definition

Voluntary Adoption Registry: A reunion registry system which allows adoptees, birthparents and biological siblings to locate each other if they wish by maintaining a voluntary list of adoptees and birth relatives.

Waiting Children : Children in the public child welfare system who cannot return to their birth homes and need permanent, loving families to help them grow up safe and secure.

Waiting Period: Typically refers to the time period which must lapse between birth and the time the consent to the adoption can be signed by the birth parents (varies from state to state).

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