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Glossary - F
Terms are interpreted slightly differently throughout the field. Commonly held definitions for terms are identified in this Glossary.
Family preservation
A program of supportive social services designed to keep families together by providing services to children and families in their home. It is based on the premise that birth families are the preferred means of providing family life for children.
Fetal alcohol effect (FAE)
A disorder associated with cognitive and behavioral difficulties in children whose birth mothers drank alcohol while pregnant. Symptoms are similar to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) but less severe or comprehensive.
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Birth defects, and serious life-long mental and emotional impairments that may result from heavy maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Symptoms of mental and emotional deficits may include significant learning and behavioral disorders (including attention deficits and hyperactivity), diminished cause-and-effect thinking, poor social judgment, and impulsive behaviors.
Fictive kin
People not related by birth or marriage who have an emotionally-significant relationship with an individual.
Finalization
The final legal step in the adoption process; involves a court hearing during which the judge orders that the adoptive parents become the child's legal parents.
Foster-adoption
A child placement in which birth parents' rights have not yet been severed by the court or in which birth parents are appealing the court's decision but foster parents agree to adopt the child if/when parental rights are terminated. Social workers place the child with specially-trained foster-adopt parents who will work with the child during family reunification efforts but who will adopt the child if the child becomes available for adoption. The main reason for making such a placement, also called legal-risk adoption, is to spare the child another move.
Foster children
Children who have been placed in the State's or county's legal custody because their birth parents were deemed abusive, neglectful, or otherwise unable to care for them.
Foster parents
State- or county-licensed adults who provide a temporary home for children whose birth parents are unable to care for them.
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A Service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
For more information, contact:
National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
330 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20447
Phone: (703) 352-3488 or (888) 251-0075
Fax: (703) 385-3206
E-mail: naic@caliber.com
Updated on July 9, 2004 by webmaster_naic@caliber.com.
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