Special Needs and Adoption-Related Terms: Adoption terms and special needs words may vary from agency to agency.The terms used in this Special Needs Adoption-Related Glossary may be slightly different from one State to another.
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- Mainstreamed: An education, term typically referring to the planned and sustained placement of a child with special educational needs into a regular education classroom for part or all of the school day.
- Maltreatment: Physical abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Federal CAPTA legislation (P.L. 104-235) provides definitions that identify a minimum set of acts or behaviors that characterize maltreatment. Each State is responsible for providing its own definitions of child abuse and neglect within the State’s civil and criminal context. (See Also Child Abuse and Neglect And Sexual Abuse)
- Matching: The process of finding prospective families specifically suited to meet the needs of a waiting child, not to be confused with “placement”.
- Medicaid: A federally funded program that provides, medical care for low-income families and individuals. Many children adopted from the Foster Care will continue to receive state medical insurance or Medicaid until the age of 18.
- Mental retardation: Impaired or incomplete mental development characterized by an IQ of 70 or below and characterized by significant functional limitations in at least two of the following skills: communication, self-care, home living, social/interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self-direction, functional academic skills, work, leisure, health, and safety. Onset usually occurs before age 18. More than 200 specific causes of mental retardation have been identified. Degrees of severity reflect the level of intellectual impairment:
Mild Mental Retardation – IQ level 50-55 to approximately 70
Moderate Retardation – IQ level 35-40 to 50-55
Severe Mental Retardation – IQ level 20-25 to 35-40
Profound Mental Retardation – IQ level below 20-25 . - Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA):
A federal law enacted in 1994 and implemented through State policy. The Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994 , as amended, P.L. 103-382 [42 USC 622] prohibits the delay or denial of any adoption or placement in foster care due to the race, color, or national origin of the child or of the foster or adoptive parents and requires States to provide for diligent recruitment of potential foster and adoptive families who reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children for whom homes are needed. The 1996 amendment, Section 1808 of P.L. 104-188, Removal of Barriers to Interethnic Adoption, affirms the prohibition against delaying or denying the placement of a child for adoption or foster care on the basis of race, color or national origin of the foster or adoptive parents or of the child involved [42 USC 1996b].
For more information about parenting special needs children you might want to visit the Families.com Special Needs Blog and the Mental Health Blog. Or visit my personal website.
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