Chapter 424

2017 -- H 5819 Enacted 10/05/2017

A N   A C T

RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES - ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN

Introduced By: Representatives Serpa, and Fellela

Date Introduced: March 02, 2017

It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Sections 40-11-2 and 40-11-6 of the General Laws in Chapter 40-11

entitled "Abused and Neglected Children" are 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 that, 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 that 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 11-37-

1(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.

(6) "Health-care provider" means any provider of health care services involved in the

delivery or care of infants and/or care of children.

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

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

(7)(8) "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.

(8)(9) "Law-enforcement agency" means the police department in any city or town and/or

the state police.

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

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.

(10)(11) "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.

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

physician, and any physician, intern, or resident of an institution as defined in subdivision (6)

subsection (7).

(12)(13) "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.

(13)(14) "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.

40-11-6. Report by physicians of abuse or neglect. Report by physicians and health

care providers of abuse or neglect.

(a) When any physician, or duly certified registered nurse practitioner, or other health-

care provider is involved in the delivery or care of infants born with, or identified as being

affected by, substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms resulting from prenatal drug exposure, or a

fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or has cause to suspect that a child brought to him or her or

coming to him or her for examination, care, or treatment, is an abused or neglected child as

defined in this chapter, or when he or she determines that a child under the age of twelve (12)

years is suffering from any sexually transmitted disease, he or she shall report the incident or

cause a report thereof to be made to the department as provided in subsection (b).

(b) An immediate oral report shall be made by telephone or otherwise, to both the

department and law enforcement agency, and shall be followed by a report, in writing, to the

department and law enforcement agency explaining the extent and nature of the abuse or neglect

the child is alleged to have suffered.

(c) The department, upon receipt of such a report by a person other than a physician or

duly certified registered nurse practitioner alleging that a child has been physically abused, shall

investigate the report, and if the investigation reveals evidence of injury or that the child has been

the victim of sexual abuse, the department shall have the child examined by a licensed physician

or duly certified registered nurse practitioner. Any child protective investigator shall, with or

without the consent of the parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare, have the right

to remove the child from the place where the child may be to secure the examination required by

this subsection. Upon completion of the examination, it shall be mandatory for the physician or

duly certified registered nurse practitioner to make a written report of his or her findings to the

department.

(d) The department shall promulgate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of

this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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LC001332

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