The Florida Senate

63.032  Definitions.--As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires, the term:

(1)  "Department" means the Department of Children and Family Services.

(2)  "Child" means a son or daughter, whether by birth or adoption.

(3)  "Court" means any circuit court of this state and, when the context requires, the court of any state that is empowered to grant petitions for adoption.

(4)  "Minor" means a person under the age of 18 years.

(5)  "Adult" means a person who is not a minor.

(6)  "Person" includes a natural person, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, or association, and any other legal entity.

(7)  "Agency" means any child-placing agency licensed by the department pursuant to s. 63.202 to place minors for adoption.

(8)  "Intermediary" means an attorney or physician who is licensed or authorized to practice in this state or, for the purpose of adoptive placements of children from out of state with citizens of this state, a child-placing agency licensed in another state that is qualified by the department.

(9)  "To place" or "placement" means the process of a person giving a child up for adoption and the prospective parents receiving and adopting the child, and includes all actions by any person or agency participating in the process.

(10)  "Adoption" means the act of creating the legal relationship between parent and child where it did not exist, thereby declaring the child to be legally the child of the adoptive parents and their heir at law and entitled to all the rights and privileges and subject to all the obligations of a child born to such adoptive parents in lawful wedlock.

(11)  "Suitability of the intended placement" includes the fitness of the intended placement, with primary consideration being given to the welfare of the child; the fitness and capabilities of the adoptive parent or parents to function as parent or parents for a particular child; and the compatibility of the child with the home in which the child is intended to be placed.

(12)  "Primary residence and place of employment in Florida" means a person lives and works in this state at least 6 months of the year and intends to do so for the foreseeable future or military personnel who designate Florida as their place of residence in accordance with the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 or employees of the United States Department of State living in a foreign country who designate Florida as their place of residence.

(13)  "Primarily lives and works outside Florida" means anyone who does not meet the definition of "primary residence and place of employment in Florida."

(14)  "Abandoned" means a situation in which the parent or legal custodian of a child, while being able, makes no provision for the child's support and makes no effort to communicate with the child, which situation is sufficient to evince a willful rejection of parental obligations. If, in the opinion of the court, the efforts of such parent or legal custodian to support and communicate with the child are only marginal efforts that do not evince a settled purpose to assume all parental duties, the court may declare the child to be abandoned. In making this decision, the court may consider the conduct of a father towards the child's mother during her pregnancy.

History.--s. 3, ch. 73-159; s. 3, ch. 75-226; s. 14, ch. 77-147; s. 2, ch. 80-296; s. 2, ch. 82-166; s. 1, ch. 84-101; s. 3, ch. 87-397; s. 1, ch. 88-109; ss. 3, 25, ch. 92-96; s. 11, ch. 97-101.