Texas Family Code 262.401 – Definitions
Terms Used In Texas Family Code 262.401
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Written: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures. See Texas Government Code 311.005
In this subchapter:
(1) “Child who is a candidate for foster care” means a child who is at imminent risk of being removed from the child’s home and placed into the conservatorship of the department because of a continuing danger to the child’s physical health or safety caused by an act or failure to act of a person entitled to possession of the child but for whom a court of competent jurisdiction has issued an order allowing the child to remain safely in the child’s home or in a kinship placement with the provision of family preservation services.
(2) “Department” means the Department of Family and Protective Services.
(3) “Family preservation service” means a time-limited, family-focused service, including a service subject to the Family First Prevention Services Act (Title VII, Div. E, Pub. L. No. 115-123), provided to the family of a child who is:
(A) a candidate for foster care to prevent or eliminate the need to remove the child and to allow the child to remain safely with the child’s family; or
(B) a pregnant or parenting foster youth.
(4) “Family preservation services plan” means a written plan, based on a professional assessment, listing the family preservation services, including services subject to the Family First Prevention Services Act (Title VII, Div. E, Pub. L. No. 115-123), to be provided to the family of a child who is:
(A) a candidate for foster care; or
(B) a pregnant or parenting foster youth.
(5) “Foster care” means substitute care as defined by § 263.001.