Ohio Revised Code Title XXXI. Domestic Relations Children § 3107.01

(A) “Adoption” means to create the legal relationship of parent and child between the petitioner and the adopted person, as if the adopted person were a legitimate blood descendant of the petitioner, for all purposes including inheritance and applicability of statutes, documents, and instruments, whether executed before or after the adoption is decreed, and which do not expressly exclude an adopted person from their operation or effect.

(B) “Agency” means any public or private organization certified, licensed, or otherwise specially empowered by law or rule to place minors for adoption.

(C) “Attorney” means a person who has been admitted to the bar by order of the Ohio supreme court.

(D) “Best interest” means the factors a court uses to determine the best interest of a child as set forth in section 3107.161 of the Revised Code.

(E) “Child” means a son or daughter, whether by birth or by adoption.

(F) “Court” means the probate courts of this state, and when the context requires, means the court of any other state empowered to grant petitions for adoption.

(G) “Date of placement” means the date on which a child is living with the child's prospective adoptive parent and becomes eligible for adoption pursuant to statutory authority, judgment decree or court order, or as otherwise authorized by law.

(H) “Foster caregiver” has the same meaning as in section 5103.02 of the Revised Code.

(I) “Identifying information” means any of the following with regard to a person:  first name, last name, maiden name, alias, social security number, address, telephone number, place of employment, number used to identify the person for the purpose of the statewide education management information system established pursuant to section 3301.0714 of the Revised Code, and any other number federal or state law requires or permits to be used to identify the person.

(J) “Kinship caregiver” has the same meaning as in section 5180.50 of the Revised Code.

(K) “Legal custodian” has the same meaning as in section 5103.16 of the Revised Code.

(L) “Legal custody” has the same meaning as in section 2151.011 of the Revised Code.

(M) “Minor” means a person under the age of eighteen years.

(N) “Parent” means a legally recognized natural or adoptive parent of a child.

(O) “Party” means a petitioner, adoptee, or any other person or agency that is part of an adoption proceeding and whose consent to the adoption is necessary but has not been obtained.

(P) “Permanent custody” has the same meaning as in section 2151.011 of the Revised Code.

(Q) “Placement” means the act by a public children services agency, a private child placing agency, or a parent who is utilizing an agency or attorney that is intended to arrange for the care or custody of a child in accordance with Chapter 5103. of the Revised Code.

(R) “Planned permanent living arrangement” has the same meaning as in section 2151.011 of the Revised Code.

(S) “Putative father” means a man, including one under age eighteen, who may be a child's father and to whom all of the following apply: