Section 441.202.1. Definitions.

“Age- or developmentally appropriate activities” means activities or items that are generally accepted as suitable for children of the same chronological age or level of maturity or that are determined to be developmentally appropriate for a child, based on the development of cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities that are typical for an age or age group; and in the case of a specific child, activities or items that are suitable for the child based on the developmental stages attained by the child with respect to the cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities of the child.

“Case permanency plan” shall mean the plan identifying goals, needs, strengths, problems, services, time frames for meeting goals and for delivery of the services to the child and parents, objectives, desired outcomes, and responsibilities of all parties involved and reviewing progress.

“Child” shall mean the same as defined by Iowa Code section 234.1.

“Department” shall mean the Iowa department of human services and includes the local offices of the department.

“Eligible child” shall mean a child for whom the court has given guardianship to the department or has transferred legal custody to the department or for whom the department has agreed to provide foster care services on the basis of a signed placement agreement or who has been placed in emergency care for a period of not more than 30 days upon the approval of the director or the director’s designee.

“Facility” means the personnel, program, plant and equipment of a person or agency providing child foster care.

“Family safety, risk, and permanency service” means a service provided under 441—Chapter 172 that uses strategies and interventions designed to achieve safety and permanency for a child with an open department child welfare case, regardless of the setting in which the child resides.

“Foster care” shall mean substitute care furnished on a 24-hour-a-day basis to an eligible child in a licensed or approved facility by a person or agency other than the child’s parent or guardian but does not include care provided in a family home through an informal arrangement for a period of 20 days or less. Child foster care shall include but is not limited to the provision of food, lodging, training, education, supervision, and health care.

“Natural parent” shall mean a parent by blood, marriage, or adoption.

“Person”  or “agency”  shall mean individuals, institutions, partnerships, voluntary associations, and corporations, other than institutions under the management or control of the department, who are licensed by the department as a foster family home, child caring agency or child placing agency, or approved as a shelter care facility.

“Reasonable and prudent parent standard” means the standard characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child while at the same time encourage the emotional and developmental growth of the child, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care under the responsibility of the state to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities. For the purposes of this definition, “caregiver” means a foster parent with whom a child in foster care has been placed or a designated official for a child care institution (including group homes, residential treatment, shelters, or other congregate care settings) in which a child in foster care has been placed.

“Resource family” means an individual person or married couple who is licensed to provide foster family care or approved for adoption.

“Safety-related information” means information that indicates whether the child has behaved in a manner that threatened the safety of another person, has committed a violent act causing bodily injury to another person, or has been a victim or perpetrator of sexual abuse.

“Service area manager” shall mean the department employee responsible for managing department offices and personnel within the service area and for implementing policies and procedures of the department.

“Social history”  or “child study”  means a written description of the child that includes strengths and needs; medical, mental, social, educational, placement and court history; and the child’s relationships with the birth family and significant others.

This rule is intended to implement Iowa Code section 234.6(6)“b.”

[ARC 8010B, IAB 7/29/09, effective 10/1/09; ARC 2069C, IAB 8/5/15, effective 10/1/15]