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Learning Disabilities (LD) - One or more impairments in reading, mathematics or written expression skills which interfere with academic performance in school or in activities of daily living requiring those skills. Performance on standardized tests below that expected for age, schooling and level of intelligence are used as preliminary diagnostic tools to identify areas where children are experiencing problems. Children with learning disabilities may be of average or above average intelligence, but have difficulty learning, sorting and storing information. Some children find learning in a regular classroom difficult and LD classes may be recommended to help them achieve their potential in school.
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Legal Custody - Restraint of or responsibility for a person according to law, such as a guardian's authority (conferred by the court) over the person or property (or both) of his ward.
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Legal Guardian - Any person who can make legal decisions for a minor child.
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Legal Risk Adoption - An adoption proceeding that is started even though the prospective adoptive family cannot be guaranteed that the child is eligible for adoption.
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Legal Risk Placement - Placement of a child in a prospective adoptive family when a child is not yet legally free for adoption. Before a child can be legally adopted by another family, parental rights of his or her birth parents must be terminated. In a "legal risk" adoptive placement either this termination of parental rights has not yet occurred, or it is being contested. In some cases, termination of parental rights is delayed until a specific adoptive family has been identified.
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Legally Free - A child whose birth parents' rights have been legally terminated so that the child is "free" to be adopted by another family.
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Liaison - The designation of a person within an organization who has responsibility for facilitating communication, collaboration and coordination between agencies involved in the child protection system.
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Life Book - A pictorial and written representation of the child's life designed to help the child make sense of his unique background and history. The life book includes birthparents, other relatives, birthplace and date, etc. and can be put together by social workers, foster parents or adoptive parents working with the child.
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Long-Term Foster Care - The intentional and planned placement of a child in foster care for an extended period of time. After the goal of adoption has been explored and not selected, and relative options are not feasible, a goal of planned long-term foster care may be seen as a viable goal. Increasingly some States child welfare systems no longer view long-term foster care as a placement alternative.
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Loss - A feeling of emotional deprivation that is experienced at some point in time. For a birth parent the initial loss will usually be felt at or subsequent to the placement of the child. Adoptive parents who are infertile feel a loss in their inability to bear a child. An adopted child may feel a sense of loss at various points in time; the first time the child realizes he is adopted may invoke a strong sense of loss for his birth family.
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