§350C-2  Definitions.  As used in this
chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:



"Adoption assistance" means the
payment or payments for the maintenance of a child which are made or committed
to be made pursuant to this chapter.



"Adoption assistance state" means the
state that is a signatory to an adoption assistance agreement in a particular
case.



"Child" means a person less than
eighteen years of age, or a person less than twenty-one years of age who has
mental or physical handicaps that warrant the continuation of assistance beyond
the age of eighteen.



"Child with special needs" means a
child for whom the department has determined that:



(1)  The child cannot or should not be returned to the
parent's home;



(2)  There exists a specific factor or condition,
including but not limited to, ethnic background, age, membership in a minority
or sibling group, or physical, emotional or mental handicaps, which make it
likely that the child could not be placed with adoptive parents without
providing adoption assistance; and



(3)  A reasonable but unsuccessful effort has been
made to place the child with appropriate adoptive parents without providing
adoption assistance, provided that no attempt need be made when it would be
against the best interests of the child because of such factors as the
existence of significant emotional ties with prospective adoptive parents while
in their care as a foster child.



"Department" means the department of
human services and its authorized representatives.



"Residence state" means the state of
which the child is a resident by virtue of the residence of the adoptive
parents.



"State" means a state of the United
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin
Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or a territory
or possession of the United States. [L 1986, c 110, pt of §1; am L 1987, c 339,
§4]