"Adequate food, shelter, clothing, medical or mental
health treatment, supervision or other care" means that food, shelter,
clothing, medical or mental health treatment, supervision or other care which,
if not provided, would constitute a denial of critical care.
"Allegation" means a statement setting forth
a condition or circumstance yet to be proven.
"Assessment" means the process by which the
department responds to all accepted reports of alleged child abuse. An
"assessment" addresses child safety, family functioning, culturally competent
practice, and identifies the family strengths and needs, and engages the family
in services if needed. The department's assessment process occurs either
through a child abuse assessment or a family assessment.
"Assessment intake" means the process by
which the department receives and records a report of suspected child
abuse.
"Caretaker" means a person responsible for
the care of a child as defined in Iowa Code section
232.68.
"Case" means a report of suspected child
abuse that has been accepted for assessment services.
"Child abuse assessment" means an assessment
process by which the department responds to all accepted reports of child abuse
which allege child abuse as defined in Iowa Code section
232.68(2)
"a"(1) through (3) and (5) through (11) as amended by 2016
Iowa Acts, Senate File 2258; or which allege child abuse as defined in Iowa
Code section
232.68(2)
"a"(4) that also allege imminent danger, death, or injury to a
child. A "child abuse assessment" results in a disposition and a determination
of whether a case meets the definition of child abuse and a determination of
whether criteria for placement on the registry are met.
"Denial of critical care" means the failure
on the part of a person responsible for the care of a child to provide for the
adequate food, shelter, clothing, medical or mental health treatment,
supervision or other care necessary for the child's health and welfare when
financially able to do so, or when offered financial or other reasonable means
to do so, and shall mean any of the following:
1. Failure to provide adequate food and nutrition to the
extent that there is danger of the child suffering injury or death.
2. Failure to provide adequate shelter to the extent that
there is danger of the child suffering injury or death.
3. Failure to provide adequate clothing to the extent that
there is danger of the child suffering injury or death.
4. Failure to provide adequate health care to the extent that
there is danger of the child suffering injury or death. A parent or guardian
legitimately practicing religious beliefs who does not provide specified
medical treatment for a child for that reason alone shall not be considered
abusing the child and shall not be placed on the child abuse registry. However,
a court may order that medical service be provided where the child's health
requires it.
5. Failure to provide the mental health care necessary to
adequately treat an observable and substantial impairment in the child's
ability to function.
6. Gross failure to meet the emotional needs of the child
necessary for normal development.
7. Failure to provide for the adequate supervision of the
child that a reasonable and prudent person would provide under similar facts
and circumstances when the failure results in direct harm or creates a risk of
harm to the child.
8. Failure to respond to the infant's life-threatening
conditions (also known as withholding medically indicated treatment) by
providing treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration and medication)
which in the treating physician's reasonable medical judgment will be most
likely to be effective in ameliorating or correcting all conditions, except
that 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 reasonable medical judgment any of the following
circumstances apply: the infant is chronically and irreversibly comatose; the
provision of the treatment would merely prolong dying, not be effective in
ameliorating or correcting all of the infant's life-threatening conditions, or
otherwise be futile in terms of the survival of the infant; the provision of
the treatment would be virtually futile in terms of the survival of the infant
and the treatment itself under the circumstances would be inhumane.
"Department" means the Iowa department of
human services and includes the local offices of the department.
"Differential response" means an assessment
system in which there are two discrete pathways to respond to accepted reports
of child abuse, a child abuse assessment and a family assessment. The child
abuse assessment pathway shall require a determination of abuse and a
determination of whether criteria for placement on the central abuse registry
are met.
"Facility providing care to a child" means
any public or private facility, including an institution, hospital, health care
facility, intermediate care facility for persons with an intellectual
disability, residential care facility for persons with an intellectual
disability, or skilled nursing facility, group home, mental health facility,
residential treatment facility, shelter care facility, detention facility, or
child care facility which includes licensed day care centers, all registered
family and group day care homes and licensed family foster homes. A public or
private school is not a facility providing care to a child, unless it provides
overnight care. Public facilities which are operated by the department of human
services are assessed by the department of inspections and appeals.
"Family assessment" means an assessment
process by which the department responds to all accepted reports of child abuse
which allege child abuse as defined in Iowa Code section
232.68(2)
"a"(4), but do not allege imminent danger, death, or injury to
a child. A "family assessment" does not include a determination of whether a
case meets the definition of child abuse and does not include a determination
of whether criteria for placement on the central abuse registry are met.
"Home" means a permanent or temporary
structure where one resides, including a licensed foster family home. For the
purpose of this chapter, "home" shall not be construed to include any public or
private facility, such as an institution, hospital, health care facility,
intermediate care facility for persons with an intellectual disability,
residential care facility for persons with an intellectual disability, skilled
nursing facility, group care, mental health facility, residential treatment
facility, shelter care facility, detention facility, licensed day care center,
or child foster care provided by an agency.
"Illegal drug" means cocaine, heroin,
amphetamine, methamphetamine or other illegal drugs, including marijuana, or
combinations or derivatives of illegal drugs which were not prescribed by a
health practitioner
"Immediate threat" or "imminent
danger" means conditions which, if no response were made, would be
more likely than not to result in sexual abuse, injury or death to a
child.
"Infant," as used in the definition of
"denial of critical care," numbered paragraph "8," means an infant less than
one year of age or an infant older than one year of age who has been
hospitalized continuously since birth, who was born extremely prematurely, or
who has a long-term disability.
"Nonaccidental physical injury" means an
injury which was the natural and probable result of a caretaker's actions which
the caretaker could have reasonably foreseen, or which a reasonable person
could have foreseen in similar circumstances, or which resulted from an act
administered for the specific purpose of causing an injury.
"Physical injury" means damage to any bodily
tissue to the extent that the tissue must undergo a healing process in order to
be restored to a sound and healthy condition or damage to any bodily tissue
which results in the death of the person who has sustained the damage.
"Preponderance of evidence" means evidence
which is of greater weight or more convincing than the evidence which is
offered in opposition to it.
"Proper supervision" means that supervision
which a reasonable and prudent person would exercise under similar facts and
circumstances, but in no event shall the person place a child in a situation
that may endanger the child's life or health, or cruelly or unduly confine the
child. Dangerous operation of a motor vehicle is a failure to provide proper
supervision when the person responsible for the care of a child is driving
recklessly, or driving while intoxicated with the child in the motor vehicle.
The failure to restrain a child in a motor vehicle does not, by itself,
constitute a cause to assess a child abuse report.
"Rejected intake" means a report of
suspected child abuse that has not been accepted for assessment.
"Reporter" means the person making a verbal
or written statement to the department, alleging child abuse.
"Report of suspected child abuse" means a
verbal or written statement made to the department by a person who suspects
that child abuse has occurred.
"Reside" or "resides" means
to habitually sleep or live. A person's subjective intent as to where the
person resides is not relevant.
"Sex trafficking" means the recruitment,
harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of
a person for the purpose of commercial sexual activity as defined in Iowa Code
section
710A.1.
"Sex trafficking victim" means a victim of
sex trafficking.
"Subject of a report of child abuse" means
any of the following:
1. A child named in a report as having been abused, or the
child's attorney or guardian ad litem.
2. A parent or the attorney for the parent of a child named
in a child abuse assessment summary as having been abused.
3. A guardian or legal custodian, or that person's attorney,
of a child named in a child abuse assessment summary as having been
abused.
4. A person or the attorney for the person named in a child
abuse assessment summary as having abused a child.
"Unduly" shall mean improper or unjust, or
excessive.
