Introduced Version
Senate Bill 584 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 584
(By Senators Prezioso, Bailey, Barnes, Guills, Unger, Minard and
Jenkins)
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[Introduced February 15, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §49-1-3 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the definition of "child abuse
and neglect"; and expanding the definition of "child abuse and
neglect"
.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §49-1-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. PURPOSES; DEFINITIONS.
§49-1-3. Definitions relating to abuse and neglect.
(a) "Abused child" means a child whose health or welfare is
harmed or threatened by:
(1) A parent, guardian or custodian who knowingly or
intentionally inflicts, attempts to inflict or knowingly allows another person to inflict, physical injury or mental or emotional
injury, upon the child or another child in the home; or
(2) Sexual abuse or sexual exploitation; or
(3) The sale or attempted sale of a child by a parent,
guardian or custodian in violation of section sixteen, article
four, chapter forty-eight of this code;
(4) A parent who subjects the fetus to prenatal exposure to
abusive use of alcohol or any controlled drug or substance not
prescribed by a health practitioner; or
(5) A parent, guardian, or custodian who knowingly exposes the
child to an environment that is being used for the manufacture,
use, or distribution of methamphetamines or any other illegally
manufactured controlled drug or substance.
In addition to its broader meaning, physical injury may
include an injury to the child as a result of excessive corporal
punishment.
(b) "Abusing parent" means a parent, guardian or other
custodian, regardless of his or her age, whose conduct, as alleged
in the petition charging child abuse or neglect, has been adjudged
by the court to constitute child abuse or neglect.
(c) "Child abuse and neglect" or "child abuse or neglect"
means physical injury, mental or emotional injury, sexual abuse,
sexual exploitation, sale or attempted sale or negligent treatment
or maltreatment of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian who is responsible for the child's welfare, under circumstances which
harm or threaten the health and welfare of the child.
(d) "Child abuse and neglect services" means social services
which are directed toward:
(1) Protecting and promoting the welfare of children who are
abused or neglected;
(2) Identifying, preventing and remedying conditions which
cause child abuse and neglect;
(3) Preventing the unnecessary removal of children from their
families by identifying family problems and assisting families in
resolving problems which could lead to a removal of children and a
breakup of the family;
(4) In cases where children have been removed from their
families, providing services to the children and the families so as
to reunify such children with their families;
(5) Placing children in suitable adoptive homes when
reunifying the children with their families is not possible or
appropriate; and
(6) Assuring the adequate care of children who have been
placed in the custody of the department or third parties.
(e) "Imminent danger to the physical well-being of the child"
means an emergency situation in which the welfare or the life of
the child is threatened. Such An emergency situation exists when
there is reasonable cause to believe that any child in the home is or has been sexually abused or sexually exploited, or reasonable
cause to believe that the following conditions threaten the health
or life of any child in the home:
(1) Nonaccidental trauma inflicted by a parent, guardian,
custodian, sibling or a babysitter or other caretaker;
(2) A combination of physical and other signs indicating a
pattern of abuse which may be medically diagnosed as battered child
syndrome;
(3) Nutritional deprivation;
(4) Abandonment by the parent, guardian or custodian;
(5) Inadequate treatment of serious illness or disease;
(6) Substantial emotional injury inflicted by a parent,
guardian or custodian; or
(7) Sale or attempted sale of the child by the parent,
guardian or custodian;
(8) Prenatal exposure of the child to abusive use of alcohol
or any controlled drug or substance; or
(9) Exposure by the parent, guardian or custodian of the child
to an environment that is being used for the manufacture, use, or
distribution of methamphetamines or any other illegally
manufactured controlled drug or substance.
(f) "Legal guardianship" means the permanent relationship
between a child and caretaker, established by order of the circuit
court having jurisdiction over the child, pursuant to the provisions of chapters forty-eight and forty-nine of this code.
(g) "Multidisciplinary team" means a group of professionals
and paraprofessionals representing a variety of disciplines who
interact and coordinate their efforts to identify, diagnose and
treat specific cases of child abuse and neglect. Multidisciplinary
teams may include, but are not limited to, medical, educational,
child care and law-enforcement personnel, social workers,
psychologists and psychiatrists. Their goal is to pool their
respective skills in order to formulate accurate diagnoses and to
provide comprehensive coordinated treatment with continuity and
follow-up for both parents and children. "Community team" means a
multidisciplinary group which addresses the general problem of
child abuse and neglect in a given community and may consist of
several multidisciplinary teams with different functions.
(h) (1) "Neglected child" means a child:
(A) Whose physical or mental health is harmed or threatened by
a present refusal, failure or inability of the child's parent,
guardian or custodian to supply the child with necessary food,
clothing, shelter, supervision, medical care or education, when
such the refusal, failure or inability is not due primarily to a
lack of financial means on the part of the parent, guardian or
custodian; or
(B) Who is presently without necessary food, clothing,
shelter, medical care, education or supervision because of the disappearance or absence of the child's parent or custodian;
(2) "Neglected child" does not mean a child whose education is
conducted within the provisions of section one, article eight,
chapter eighteen of this code.
(i) "Parenting skills" means a parent's competencies in
providing physical care, protection, supervision and psychological
support appropriate to a child's age and state of development.
(j) "Sexual abuse" means:
(A) As to a child who is less than sixteen years of age, any
of the following acts which a parent, guardian or custodian shall
engage in, attempt to engage in, or knowingly procure engages in,
attempts to engage in, or knowingly procures another person to
engage in, with such the child, notwithstanding the fact that the
child may have willingly participated in such the conduct or the
fact that the child may have suffered no apparent physical injury
or mental or emotional injury as a result of such the conduct:
(i) Sexual intercourse;
(ii) Sexual intrusion; or
(iii) Sexual contact;
(B) As to a child who is sixteen years of age or older, any of
the following acts which a parent, guardian or custodian shall
engage in, attempt to engage in, or knowingly procure engages in,
attempts to engage in, or knowingly procures another person to
engage in, with such the child, notwithstanding the fact that the child may have consented to such the conduct or the fact that the
child may have suffered no apparent physical injury or mental or
emotional injury as a result of such the conduct:
(i) Sexual intercourse;
(ii) Sexual intrusion; or
(iii) Sexual contact;
(C) Any conduct whereby a parent, guardian or custodian
displays his or her sex organs to a child, or procures another
person to display his or her sex organs to a child, for the purpose
of gratifying the sexual desire of the parent, guardian or
custodian, of the person making such the display, or of the child,
or for the purpose of affronting or alarming the child.
(k) "Sexual contact" means sexual contact as that term is
defined in section one, article eight-b, chapter sixty-one of this
code.
(l) "Sexual exploitation" means an act whereby:
(1) A parent, custodian or guardian, whether for financial
gain or not, persuades, induces, entices or coerces a child to
engage in sexually explicit conduct as that term is defined in
section one, article eight-c, chapter sixty-one of this code;
(2) A parent, guardian or custodian persuades, induces,
entices or coerces a child to display his or her sex organs for the
sexual gratification of the parent, guardian, custodian or a third
person, or to display his or her sex organs under circumstances in which the parent, guardian or custodian knows such the display is
likely to be observed by others who would be affronted or alarmed.
(m) "Sexual intercourse" means sexual intercourse as that term
is defined in section one, article eight-b, chapter sixty-one of
this code.
(n) "Sexual intrusion" means sexual intrusion as that term is
defined in section one, article eight-b, chapter sixty-one of this
code.
(o) "Parental rights" means any and all rights and duties
regarding a parent to a minor child, including, but not limited to,
custodial rights and visitational rights and rights to participate
in the decisions affecting a minor child.
(p) "Placement" means any temporary or permanent placement of
a child who is in the custody of the state in any foster home,
group home or other facility or residence.
(q) "Serious physical abuse" means bodily injury which creates
a substantial risk of death, which causes serious or prolonged
disfigurement, prolonged impairment of health or prolonged loss or
impairment of the function of any bodily organ.
(r) "Siblings" means children who have at least one biological
parent in common or who have been legally adopted by the same
parents or parent.
(s) "Time-limited reunification services" means individual,
group, and family counseling, inpatient, residential or outpatient substance abuse treatment services, mental health services,
assistance to address domestic violence, services designed to
provide temporary child care and therapeutic services for families,
including crisis nurseries and transportation to or from any such
services, provided during fifteen of the most recent twenty-two
months a child has been in foster care, as determined by the
earlier date of the first judicial finding that the child is
subjected to abuse or neglect, or the date which is sixty days
after the child is removed from home.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
expand the definition of
child abuse and neglect to include parents who expose their child
prenatally
to abusive use of alcohol or any controlled drug or
substance and to those parents
who expose their child to locations
where illicit drugs or substances are manufactured.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
This bill was recommended for introduction and passage during
the 2006 Regular Session of the Legislature by Interim Select
Committee "A".