CWDS Glossary

In the context of adoption, this term generally refers to a birthparent voluntarily giving up his or her parental rights to a child, so that someone else can adopt them. In practice it generally refers to these parental rights being transferred to an agency, rather than directly to the new adoptive parents, so that the agency can maintain the level of confidentiality or privacy that the parties desire and have agreed to in the adoption. The agency then passes the parental rights on to the adoptive parents who adopt the child. The term "Relinquishment" is also very commonly used to refer to the actual relinquishment documents that are signed by the birth parents as part of the relinquishment process. See CDSS Manual of Policy and Procedures Section 31-002 (r) (3) and California W&IC 8700.

The ability to get access to a computer or a network from a remote location.

A person who reports to child welfare services any incident “reasonably suspected” of being child abuse or neglect.

A coordinated set of constraints to the design of components in a distributed hypermedia system that can lead to a higher-performing and more maintainable architecture. An application programming interface (API or web API) that conforms to the constraints of REST architectural style and allows for interaction with RESTful web services.

A Request for Offer (RFO) is an open and competitive purchasing process whereby an organization requests the submission of offers in response to specifications and/or a scope of services

A document that solicits proposal, often made through a bidding process, by an agency or company interested in procurement of a commodity, service, or valuable asset, to potential suppliers to submit business proposals.

Captures all requirements proposed by the client or software development team during planning and their traceability in a single document, delivered at the conclusion of a life-cycle. It is a matrix that maps and traces product development from design to the completed/end scope. The main purpose of RTM is to track that all requirements are met and that no functionality is missed during development.

An individual or family that a County determines to have successfully met the application and assessment criteria necessary for providing care for a child or non-minor dependent who is under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, or otherwise under the supervision of a county child welfare agency or probation department.

A statewide foster caregiver approval process for all caregivers (related and non-related). The RFA program has a single approval standard that replaces the previous multiple processes for licensing foster family homes, approving relatives and non-relative extended family members (“NREFMs”) as foster care providers, and approving families for legal guardianship or adoption. Tribally approved homes are not required to adhere to the RFA standards.

Also known as facilities support, this addresses licensing Foster Family Homes (FFHs) for the 39 counties that license their own FFHs and whose system of record for licensing is the CWS/CMS.