Glossary of Terms

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  • Adoptee
    An individual who has been adopted.
  • Adoption
    The legal transfer of all parental rights and obligations from one person or couple to another person or couple; the legal act of placing a child with a parent or parents other than their birth parent and raising the child as their own.
  • Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System
    Collection of case-level information from state and tribal title IV-E agencies on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement.” http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/about-afcars
  • Adoption and Safe Families Act
    Federal legislation passed in 1997 that reforms adoption practices.  Adoption and Safe Families act of 1997 (In Acts, Laws, and Bulletins)
  • Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act
    This act was to establish a program of adoption assistance, to strengthen the program of foster care assistance for needy and dependent children, to improve the child welfare, social services, and aid to families with dependent children programs.  Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of(...)
  • Adoption Disruption
    A term used to describe the ending of a pending adoption that is not yet legally finalized.
  • Adoption Dissolution
    A term used to describe an adoption that ends after it is legally finalized. The dissolution results in the child returning to foster care or another placement with new adoptive parents.
  • Adoption Finalization
    The last legal steps in the adoption process; only after finalization does the adoptive parent have legal rights and responsibilities for a child. Supportive services, reports and home visits and work with attorneys and courts, are included in the SWAN finalization unit.
  • Adoption Legal Services Project
    Adoption Legal Services Project (ALSP) was founded in 1996 by then Allegheny County Family Court Administrative Judge Max Baer (now state Supreme Court Justice Baer) and works in Allegheny County Orphans’ Court.  ALSP represents Allegheny County OCYF in all aspects of termination of parental(...)
  • Adoption Medical History Registry
    A non-identifying database of personal and familial medical information voluntarily submitted by birth parents and that is shared with adoptees upon request. No new information is added to this database, which was supplanted by the Pennsylvania Adoption Information Registry.
  • AFCARS
    Collection of case-level information from state and tribal title IV-E agencies on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement.” http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/about-afcars
  • ALSP
    Adoption Legal Services Project (ALSP) was founded in 1996 by then Allegheny County Family Court Administrative Judge Max Baer (now state Supreme Court Justice Baer) and works in Allegheny County Orphans’ Court.  ALSP represents Allegheny County OCYF in all aspects of termination of parental(...)
  • AMHR
    A non-identifying database of personal and familial medical information voluntarily submitted by birth parents and that is shared with adoptees upon request. No new information is added to this database, which was supplanted by the Pennsylvania Adoption Information Registry.
  • ASFA
    Federal legislation passed in 1997 that reforms adoption practices.  Adoption and Safe Families act of 1997 (In Acts, Laws, and Bulletins)