7 Alaska Admin. Code § 50.990 : Health and Social Services — Children's Services and Juvenile Justice — Community Care Licensing — Miscellaneous Provisions — Definitions

In this chapter,

(1) "administrator" means individual who has general administrative charge and oversight over a facility subject to this chapter;

(2) "boarding care" means care provided in a residential child care facility exclusively for children who are residing outside of their home community for the purpose of obtaining education;

(3) "caregiver" includes an administrator, employee, contractor, substitute. volunteer, student intern, or other individual in a facility whose duties include care and supervision of children;

(4) "center" includes a residential center;

(5) "chemical restraint" means a drug that is administered to manage a resident's behavior in a way that reduces the safety risk to the resident or others, that has the temporary effect of restricting the resident's freedom of movement, and that is not a standard treatment for the resident's medical or psychiatric condition;

(6) "child" means an individual who is

(A) under 18 years of age; or

(B) under 21 years of age and in the custody of the state;

(7) "child care" or "care" means care, supervision, and provision of developmental opportunities, with or without compensation, to a child who does not have a parent present;

(8) "child in care" means an individual in a residential facility who is receiving care;

(9) "child placement agency" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900 and includes the state with regard to the placement of children;

(10) "child with special needs"

(A) means a child under 18 years of age who is a

(i) "hard to place child" under AS 25.23.240; or

(ii) "person with a disability" under AS 47.80.900;

(B) does not include a "gifted" child under 4 AAC 52.890;

(11) "contractor" means a contractor who performs services for a facility and has routine contact with children in the facility;

(12) "corporal punishment" means the infliction of bodily pain as a penalty for a disapproved behavior; it includes shaking, spanking, delivering a blow with a part of the body or an object, slapping, punching, pulling, or any other action that seeks to induce pain;

(13) "department" means the Department of Health;

(14) "emergency shelter care" means care in a full-time care facility that is short term in nature, usually not exceeding 90 days; the term includes respite care;

(15) "facility" means the administration, program, and physical plant of a residential child care facility or maternity home and includes other parts of the building housing the facility and adjoining grounds over which the operator of the facility has direct control;

(16) "freestanding" means individually licensed as a residential psychiatric treatment center under this chapter, and independent from administrative or financial control of another facility;

(17) "full-time care facility" means a residential child care facility;

(18) "group home" means a residential group home;

(19) "infant" means a child age birth up to 12 months of age;

(20) "isolation" means the involuntary confinement or seclusion of a resident alone in a locked behavior-management room;

(21) "license" means a permit issued under AS 47.10.392 or a license issued under AS 47.32;

(22) "licensee" has the meaning given "licensed entity" in AS 47.32.900, including an entity to whom a permit has been issued under AS 47.10.392;

(23) "licensing representative" means an employee of the department or an individual or organization responsible for evaluating a facility, and presumes review and approval of the representative's decisions by the department or organization authorized under 7 AAC 50.040;

(24) "locked behavior-management room" means a room or area in which a child is isolated by locking the door to the room, or by stationing staff in or outside the room or area for the purpose of preventing the child from leaving the room;

(25) "maternity home" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900;

(26) "mechanical restraint" means a device attached or adjacent to the resident's body that the resident cannot easily remove and that restricts freedom of movement or normal access by the resident to the resident's body;

(27) "medically fragile child" means a child who lacks physical or emotional strength and requires frequent medical attention from personnel outside of the facility;

(28) "operator" means the person licensed to operate a facility;

(29) "parent" means a birth or adoptive parent;

(30) "passive physical restraint" means the least amount of direct physical contact by a caregiver, using methods approved by the department, to restrain a child from harming self or others;

(31) "personal restraint" means the application of physical force without the use of any device, for the purpose of restricting the free movement of a resident's body;

(32) "physical restraint" means the application of physical force without the use of any device, for the purpose of restricting the free movement of a child's body;

(33) "placement worker" means a person who arranges for placement of a child in a residential child care facility and includes an employee of the department with regard to the placement of children;

(34) "professional review organization" means an independent team of medical professionals, including at least one physician, who have competence in the treatment and diagnosis of mental illness, and who operate under an agreement with the state to provide independent reviews;

(35) "regular volunteer" means a person who volunteers for at least one day a week for at least five consecutive weeks;

(36) "relative" means an individual who is related to another by blood, adoption, marriage, or tribal custom;

(37) "residential center" means a residential child care facility for 13 or more children;

(38) "residential child care facility" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900;

(39) "residential group home" means a residential child care facility for no more than 12 children;

(40) "residential psychiatric treatment center" has the meaning given in AS 47.32.900;

(41) "restraint" means a personal restraint, physical restraint, mechanical restraint, or chemical restraint;

(42) "runaway child" has the meaning given "runaway minor" in AS 47.10.390;

(43) "semi-secure residential child care facility"

(A) means a residential child care facility that is wholly or partially secure such that a child is not prevented from leaving, but will reasonably ensure that if a child leaves without permission, the child's act of leaving will be immediately noticed;

(B) does not include a facility licensed under 7 AAC 50.805 as a semisecure residential psychiatric treatment center;

(44) "serious injury" has the meaning given in 7 AAC 67.990;

(45) "shelter home" means a foster home exclusively for runaway youth;

(46) "sleeping hours" means the hours from midnight to six a.m.;

(47) "supervised transition living" or "supervised apartment living" means a short-term program for adolescents at least 16 years of age and under 19 years of age to enable those for whom independent living is the plan to prepare to lead self-sufficient adult lives;

(48) "supervision of children" means protective oversight of children including

(A) a prudent level of awareness of and responsibility for a child's ongoing activity;

(B) knowledge of program, the applicable requirements of this chapter, and children's needs; and

(C) the degree of supervision indicated by a child's age, developmental level, and physical, emotional, and social needs;

(49) "treatment" means a series of planned interventions designed to address a child's physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and developmental disorders and bring about positive measurable changes needed to facilitate the child's successful functioning and return to its family or community;

(50) "waking hours" means the hours from six a.m. to midnight;

(51) "young child" means a child from birth up to nine years of age.

7 AAC 50.990

Eff. 1/1/96, Register 136; am 3/1/98, Register 145; am 1/1/2001, Register 156; am 6/21/2001, Register 158; am 6/23/2006, Register 178; am 4/13/2011, Register 198; am 7/1/2022, Register 242, July 2022

Authority:AS 44.29.020

AS 47.05.012

AS 47.10.300

AS 47.10.392

AS 47.32.010

AS 47.32.030