237.1 Definitions.

As used in this chapter:

1. “Administrator” means the administrator of that division of the department designated by the director of human services to administer this chapter or the administrator’s designee.

2. “Agency” means a person, as defined in section 4.1, subsection 20, which provides child foster care and which does not meet the definition of an individual in subsection 7.

3. “Child” means child as defined in section 234.1, subsection 2.

4. “Child foster care” means the provision of parental nurturing, including but not limited to the furnishing of food, lodging, training, education, supervision, treatment, or other care, to a child on a full-time basis by a person, including a relative of the child if the relative is licensed under this chapter, but not including a guardian of the child. “Child foster care” does not include any of the following care situations:

a. Care furnished by an individual person who receives the child of a personal friend as an occasional and personal guest in the individual person’s home, free of charge and not as a business.

b. Care furnished by an individual person with whom a child has been placed for lawful adoption, unless that adoption is not completed within two years after placement.

c. Care furnished by a private boarding school subject to approval by the state board of education pursuant to section 256.11.

d. Child care furnished by a child care center, a child development home, or a child care home as defined in section 237A.1.

e. Care furnished in a hospital licensed under chapter 135B or care furnished in a nursing facility licensed under chapter 135C.

f. Care furnished by a relative of a child for more than twenty days in one calendar year, where the child is not under the placement, care, or supervision of the department.

5. “Department” means the department of human services.

6. “Facility” means the personnel, program, physical plant, and equipment of a licensee.

7. “Individual” means an individual person or a married couple who provides child foster care in a single-family home environment and which does not meet the definition of an agency in subsection 2.

8. “Licensee” means an individual or an agency licensed by the administrator under this chapter.

9. “Reasonable and prudent parent standard” means the standard characterized by careful and sensible parenting decisions that maintain the health, safety, and best interests of a child, while at the same time encouraging the emotional and developmental growth of a child, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care under the placement, care, or supervision of the department to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, or social activities. For the purposes of this subsection, “caregiver” means an individual or an agency licensed under this chapter with which a child in foster care has been placed or a juvenile shelter care home approved under chapter 232 in which a child in foster care has been placed.

[C27, 31, 35, §3661-a42, -a43; C39, §3661.056, 3661.057; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, §237.1, 237.2; C81, §237.1; 82 Acts, ch 1016, §1]

83 Acts, ch 96, §157, 159; 86 Acts, ch 1245, §1418; 87 Acts, ch 44, §1; 90 Acts, ch 1039, §14; 99 Acts, ch 192, §29; 2002 Acts, ch 1142, §2, 31; 2016 Acts, ch 1063, §20; 2017 Acts, ch 100, §1

Referred to in §16.1, 232.2, 232.102, 237.4, 237.13, 282.19, 423.3