DEFINITIONS.

In this chapter:

(1) "Adverse action" means any action that directly or indirectly adversely affects the person against whom the adverse action is taken, places the person in a worse position than the person was in before the adverse action was taken, or is likely to deter a reasonable person from acting or refusing to act. An adverse action includes:

(A) denying an application for, refusing to renew, or canceling funding;

(B) declining to enter into, refusing to renew, or canceling a contract;

(C) declining to issue, refusing to renew, or canceling a license;

(D) terminating, suspending, demoting, or reassigning a person; and

(E) limiting the ability of a person to engage in child welfare services.

(2) "Catchment area" means a geographic service area for providing child protective services or child welfare services.

(3) "Child welfare services" means social services provided to or on behalf of children, including:

(A) assisting abused or neglected children;

(B) counseling children or parents;

(C) promoting foster parenting;

(D) providing foster homes, general residential operations, residential care, adoptive homes, group homes, or temporary group shelters for children;

(E) recruiting foster parents;

(F) placing children in foster homes;

(G) licensing foster homes;

(H) promoting adoption or recruiting adoptive parents;

(I) assisting adoptions or supporting adoptive families;

(J) performing or assisting home studies;

(K) assisting kinship guardianships or kinship caregivers;

(L) providing family preservation services;

(M) providing family support services;

(N) providing temporary family reunification services;

(O) placing children in adoptive homes; and

(P) serving as a foster parent.

(4) "Child welfare services provider" means a person, other than a governmental entity, that provides, seeks to provide, or applies for or receives a contract, subcontract, grant, subgrant, or cooperative agreement to provide child welfare services. The person is not required to be engaged exclusively in child welfare services to be a child welfare services provider.

(5) "Governmental entity" means:

(A) this state or a municipality or other political subdivision of this state;

(B) any agency of this state or of a municipality or other political subdivision of this state, including a department, bureau, board, commission, office, agency, council, and public institution of higher education; or

(C) a single source continuum contractor in this state providing services identified under Section 264.153, Family Code.