Section 451. Definitions

As used in this title:
    1. "Child" shall mean a person under the age of twenty-one years whose
  guardianship  and  custody  have  been  committed  to  a social services
  official or a voluntary authorized agency,  or  whose  guardianship  and
  custody  have  been  committed  to a certified or approved foster parent
  pursuant to a court order prior to such  person's  eighteenth  birthday,
  except  as  provided  in  paragraph  (g) of subdivision three of section
  three hundred eighty-four-b of this  article  and  section  six  hundred
  thirty-one  of  the family court act. A "child" shall also mean a person
  under the age of twenty-one years  whose  care  and  custody  have  been
  transferred  prior  to  such  person's  eighteenth  birthday to a social
  services official or a voluntary authorized agency pursuant  to  section
  one thousand fifty-five of the family court act or section three hundred
  eighty-four-a  of  this article, whose parents are deceased or where one
  parent is deceased and the other parent is  not  a  person  entitled  to
  notice  pursuant  to  section  one  hundred  eleven-a  of  the  domestic
  relations law, and  where  such  official  or  agency  consents  to  the
  adoption  of such person in accordance with section one hundred thirteen
  of the domestic relations law.
    2. "Handicapped child" shall mean a child  who  possesses  a  specific
  physical,  mental  or emotional condition or disability of such severity
  or kind which, in accordance with regulations of the  department,  would
  constitute a significant obstacle to the child's adoption.
    3.  "Hard to place child" shall mean a child, other than a handicapped
  child, (a) who has not been placed for adoption within six  months  from
  the  date  his  guardianship  and  custody  were committed to the social
  services official or a voluntary authorized agency, or (b) who  has  not
  been  placed  for  adoption  within  six months from the date a previous
  adoption placement terminated and the child was returned to the care  of
  the  social  services  official or a voluntary authorized agency, or (c)
  who possesses or presents any personal or familial attribute, condition,
  problem or characteristic which, in accordance with regulations  of  the
  department,   would   be   an   obstacle   to   the   child's  adoption,
  notwithstanding the child has been in the guardianship  and  custody  of
  the  social  services official or a voluntary authorized agency for less
  than six months.
    4. (a) "Board rate" shall mean an amount equal to the monthly  payment
  which has been or would have been made by a social services official, in
  accordance   with   section   three  hundred  ninety-eight-a  and  other
  provisions of this chapter, for the care and maintenance of  the  child,
  if  such  child  had  been boarded out in a foster family boarding home.
  Such rate shall reflect annual increases in room  and  board  rates  and
  clothing replacement allowances.
    (b)  When a child is placed for adoption by a social services official
  or a voluntary authorized  agency  with  adoptive  parents  residing  in
  another  social services district, the "board rate" shall mean the board
  rate of the social services district placing the child for  adoption  or
  the social services district in which the adoptive parents reside.
    5.  "Persons"  shall include a single person eligible to adopt a child
  as well as a couple eligible therefor.
    6. "Voluntary authorized agency" shall mean an  authorized  agency  as
  defined  in  paragraphs  (a) and (c) of subdivision ten of section three
  hundred seventy-one of this article.
    7. "Social services official" shall  mean  a  county  commissioner  of
  social  services,  a  city commissioner of social services, or an Indian
  tribe with which the department has entered into an agreement to provide
  adoption  services  in  accordance  with  subdivision  two  of   section
  thirty-nine of this chapter.