2016 -- S 2947

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LC005892

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES -- ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN

     Introduced By: Senator Maryellen Goodwin

     Date Introduced: May 10, 2016

     Referred To: Senate Health & Human Services

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 40-11-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 40-11 entitled "Abused and

Neglected Children" is hereby amended to read as follows:

     40-11-2. Definitions. -- When used in this chapter and unless the specific context

indicates otherwise:

      (1) "Abused and/or neglected child" means a child whose physical or mental health or

welfare is harmed or threatened with harm when his or her parent or other person responsible for

his or her welfare:

      (i) Inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon the child physical or mental injury, including

excessive corporal punishment; or

      (ii) Creates or allows to be created a substantial risk of physical or mental injury to the

child, including excessive corporal punishment; or

      (iii) Commits or allows to be committed, against the child, an act of sexual abuse; or

      (iv) Fails to supply the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical care,

though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so; or

      (v) Fails to provide the child with a minimum degree of care or proper supervision or

guardianship because of his or her unwillingness or inability to do so by situations or conditions

such as, but not limited to, social problems, mental incompetency, or the use of a drug, drugs, or

alcohol to the extent that the parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare loses his or

her ability or is unwilling to properly care for the child; or

      (vi) Abandons or deserts the child; or

      (vii) Sexually exploits the child in that the person allows, permits or encourages the child

to engage in prostitution as defined by the provisions in § 11-34.1-1 et seq., entitled "Commercial

Sexual Activity"; or

      (viii) Sexually exploits the child in that the person allows, permits, encourages or

engages in the obscene or pornographic photographing, filming or depiction of the child in a

setting which taken as a whole suggests to the average person that the child is about to engage in

or has engaged in, any sexual act, or which depicts any such child under eighteen (18) years of

age, performing sodomy, oral copulation, sexual intercourse, masturbation, or bestiality; or

      (ix) Commits or allows to be committed any sexual offense against the child as such

sexual offenses are defined by the provisions of chapter 37 of title 11, entitled "Sexual Assault",

as amended; or

      (x) Commits or allows to be committed against any child an act involving sexual

penetration or sexual contact if the child is under fifteen (15) years of age; or if the child is fifteen

(15) years or older, and (1) force or coercion is used by the perpetrator, or (2) the perpetrator

knows or has reason to know that the victim is a severely impaired person as defined by the

provisions of § 11-5-11, or physically helpless as defined by the provisions of § 11-37-6.

      (2) "Child" means a person under the age of eighteen (18).

      (3) "Child protective investigator" means an employee of the department charged with

responsibility for investigating complaints and/or referrals of child abuse and/or neglect and

institutional child abuse and/or neglect.

      (4) "Department" means department of children, youth, and families.

     (5) "Educational program" means any public or private school, including boarding

schools, or any home schooling program.

      (5)(6) "Institution" means any private or public hospital or other facility providing

medical and/or psychiatric diagnosis, treatment, and care.

      (6)(7) "Institutional child abuse and neglect" means situations of known or suspected

child abuse or neglect where the person allegedly responsible for the abuse or neglect is a foster

parent or the employee of a public or private residential child care institution or agency; or any

staff person providing out-of-home care or situations where the suspected abuse or neglect occurs

as a result of the institution's practices, policies, or conditions.

      (7)(8) "Law enforcement agency" means the police department in any city or town

and/or the state police.

      (8)(9) "Mental injury" includes a state of substantially diminished psychological or

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intellectual functioning in relation to, but not limited to, such factors as: failure to thrive; ability

to think or reason; control of aggressive or self-destructive impulses; acting-out or misbehavior,

including incorrigibility, ungovernability, or habitual truancy; provided, however, that the injury

must be clearly attributable to the unwillingness or inability of the parent or other person

responsible for the child's welfare to exercise a minimum degree of care toward the child.

      (9)(10) "Person responsible for child's welfare" means the child's parent, guardian, any

individual, eighteen (18) years of age or older, who resides in the home of a parent or guardian

and has unsupervised access to a child, foster parent, an employee of a public or private

residential home or facility, or any staff person providing out-of-home care (out-of-home care

means child day care to include family day care, group day care, and center-based day care).

Provided further that an individual, eighteen (18) years of age or older, who resides in the home

of a parent or guardian and has unsupervised access to the child, shall not have the right to

consent to the removal and examination of the child for the purposes of § 40-11-6.

      (10)(11) "Physician" means any licensed doctor of medicine, licensed osteopathic

physician, and any physician, intern, or resident of an institution as defined in subdivision (5).

      (11)(12) "Probable cause" means facts and circumstances based upon as accurate and

reliable information as possible that would justify a reasonable person to suspect that a child is

abused or neglected. The facts and circumstances may include evidence of an injury or injuries,

and the statements of a person worthy of belief, even if there is no present evidence of injury.

      (12)(13) "Shaken baby syndrome" means a form of abusive head trauma, characterized

by a constellation of symptoms caused by other than accidental traumatic injury resulting from

the violent shaking of and/or impact upon an infant or young child's head.

     SECTION 2. Chapter 40-11 of the General Laws entitled "Abused and Neglected

Children" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section:

     40-11-3.3. Duty to report -- Sexual abuse of a child in an educational program. – (a)

Any person who has reasonable cause to know or suspect that any child has been the victim of

sexual abuse by an employee, agent, contractor or volunteer of an educational program as defined

in §40-11-2 shall, within twenty-four (24) hours, transfer that information to the department of

children, youth and families or its agent who shall immediately forward the report to state police

and local law enforcement, and shall initiate an investigation of the allegations of sexual abuse.

As a result of those reports and referrals, the department shall refer those children to appropriate

services and support systems in order to provide for their health and welfare. In the event the

department substantiates the allegations of sexual abuse against an employee, agent, contractor or

volunteer of a public or private school, the department shall immediately notify the state police,

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local law enforcement agency, the department of education, the educational program, the person

who is the subject of the investigation, and the parent or parents of the child who is alleged to be

the victim of the sexual abuse of the department's findings.

     (b) The director is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations in order to carry out the

intent of this section.

     SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES -- ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN

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     This act would require the reporting of any sexual abuse of a child by an employee,

agent, contractor or volunteer of an education program defined in the Rhode Island general laws.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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