41-3-102. Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following definitions apply:
(1) "A person responsible for a child's welfare" means:
(a) the child's parent, guardian, or foster parent;
(b) a staff person providing care in a day-care facility;
(c) an employee of a public or private residential institution, facility, home, or agency; or
(d) any other person legally responsible for the child's welfare in a residential setting.
(2) "Abused or neglected" means the state or condition of a child who has suffered child abuse or neglect.
(3) (a) "Adequate health care" means any medical care, including the prevention of the withholding of medically indicated treatment or medically indicated psychological care permitted or authorized under state law.
(b) This chapter may not be construed to require or justify a finding of child abuse or neglect for the sole reason that a parent, due to religious beliefs, does not provide medical care for a child. However, this chapter may not be construed to limit the administrative or judicial authority of the state to ensure that medical care is provided to the child when there is imminent or substantial risk of harm to the child.
(c) The term does not include self-defense, defense of others, or action taken to prevent the child from self-harm that does not constitute harm to a child's health or welfare.
(4) "Child" or "youth" means any person under 18 years of age.
(5) (a) "Child abuse or neglect" means:
(i) harm to a child's health or welfare; or
(ii) threatened harm to a child's health or welfare.
(b) The term includes harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare by the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the child's welfare.
(6) "Department" means the department of public health and human services provided for in 2-15-2201.
(7) "Harm to a child's health or welfare" means the harm that occurs whenever the parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare:
(a) inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon the child physical or mental injury;
(b) commits or allows to be committed sexual abuse or exploitation of the child;
(c) induces or attempts to induce a child into giving untrue testimony that the child or another child was abused or neglected by a parent or person responsible for the child's welfare;
(d) causes failure to thrive or otherwise fails to supply the child with adequate food or fails to supply clothing, shelter, education, or adequate health care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so;
(e) abandons the child by leaving the child under circumstances that make reasonable the belief that the parent or other person does not intend to resume care of the child in the future or willfully surrenders physical custody for a period of 6 months and during that period does not manifest to the child and the person having physical custody of the child a firm intention to resume physical custody or to make permanent legal arrangements for the care of the child; or
(f) is unknown and has been unknown for a period of 90 days and reasonable efforts to identify and locate the parents have failed.
(8) "Limited emancipation" means a status conferred on a youth by a court after a dispositional hearing in accordance with 41-3-406 under which the youth is entitled to exercise some but not all of the rights and responsibilities of a person who is 18 years of age or older.
(9) "Mental injury" means an identifiable and substantial impairment of the child's intellectual or psychological functioning.
(10) "Parent" means a biological or adoptive parent or stepparent.
(11) "Physical injury" means death, permanent or temporary disfigurement, or impairment of any bodily organ or function. The term includes death, permanent or temporary disfigurement, and impairment of a bodily organ or function sustained as a result of excessive corporal punishment.
(12) (a) "Sexual abuse" means the commission of sexual assault, sexual intercourse without consent, indecent exposure, deviate sexual conduct, or incest, as described in Title 45, chapter 5, part 5.
(b) Sexual abuse does not include any necessary touching of an infant's or toddler's genital area while attending to the sanitary or health care needs of that infant or toddler by a parent.
(13) "Sexual exploitation" means allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child to engage in a prostitution offense, as described in 45-5-601 through 45-5-603, or allowing, permitting, or encouraging sexual abuse of children as described in 45-5-625.
(14) "Social worker" means an employee of the department who, prior to the employee's field assignment, has been educated or trained or is receiving education or training in a program of social work or a related field that includes cognitive and family systems treatment or who has equivalent verified experience or verified training in the investigation of child abuse, neglect, and endangerment. This definition does not apply to any provision of this code that is not in this chapter.
(15) "Threatened harm to a child's health or welfare" means substantial risk of harm to the child's health or welfare.
(16) (a) "Withholding of medically indicated treatment" means the failure to respond to an infant's life-threatening conditions by providing treatment, including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication, that, in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment, will be most likely to be effective in ameliorating or correcting the conditions.
(b) The term does not include the failure to provide treatment, other than appropriate nutrition, hydration, or medication, to an infant when, in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment:
(i) the infant is chronically and irreversibly comatose;
(ii) the provision of treatment would:
(A) merely prolong dying;
(B) not be effective in ameliorating or correcting all of the infant's life-threatening conditions; or
(C) otherwise be futile in terms of the survival of the infant; or
(iii) the provision of treatment would be virtually futile in terms of the survival of the infant and the treatment itself under the circumstances would be inhumane. For purposes of this subsection (16), "infant" means an infant less than 1 year of age or an infant 1 year of age or older who has been continuously hospitalized since birth, who was born extremely prematurely, or who has a long-term disability. The reference to less than 1 year of age may not be construed to imply that treatment should be changed or discontinued when an infant reaches 1 year of age or to affect or limit any existing protections available under state laws regarding medical neglect of children over 1 year of age.
(17) "Youth in need of care" means a youth who is abused or neglected.
History: En. 10-1301 by Sec. 2, Ch. 328, L. 1974; amd. Sec. 18, Ch. 100, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 10-1301; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 543, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 511, L. 1981; amd. Sec. 31, Ch. 465, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 564, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 626, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 463, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 36, Ch. 609, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 474, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 439, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 458, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 528, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 159, Ch. 546, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 564, L. 1995.
