Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect Montana

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Sexual abuse

Sexual exploitation

Emotional/mental injury

Abandonment

Categories of Maltreatment Not Defined in Statute

DEFINITIONS

Mont. Code Ann. § 41-3-102 (WESTLAW through 2001 Reg. Sess.)

'Abandon,' 'abandoned,' and 'abandonment' mean:

Leaving a child under circumstances that make reasonable the belief that the parent does not intend to resume care of the child in the future;

Willfully surrendering physical custody for a period of 6 months and during that period not manifesting 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;

That the parent is unknown and has been unknown for a period of 90 days and that reasonable efforts to identify and locate the parent have failed; or

The voluntary surrender, as defined in § 40-6-402, by a parent of a newborn who is no more than 30 days old to an emergency services provider.

'A person responsible for a child's welfare' means:

The child's parent, guardian, foster parent or an adult who resides in the same home in which the child resides;

A person providing care in a day-care facility;

An employee of a public or private residential institution, facility, home, or agency; or
Any other person responsible for the child's welfare in a residential setting.

'Abused or neglected' means the state or condition of a child who has suffered child abuse or neglect.

'Child' or 'youth' means any person under 18 years of age.

'Child abuse' or 'neglect' means:

Actual harm to a child's health or welfare;
Substantial risk of harm to a child's health or welfare; or

Abandonment.

'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:

Inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon the child physical abuse, physical neglect, or
psychological abuse or neglect;

Commits or allows to be committed sexual abuse or exploitation of the child;

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;

Causes malnutrition or 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;

Exposes or allows the child to be exposed to an unreasonable risk to the child's health or welfare by failing to intervene or eliminate the risk; or

Abandons the child.

'Physical abuse' means an intentional act or omission, or gross negligence resulting in substantial skin bruising, internal bleeding, substantial injury to skin, subdural hematoma, burns, bone fractures, extreme pain, permanent or temporary disfigurement, impairment of any bodily organ or function, or death.

'Physical neglect' means either failure to provide basic necessities, including but not limited to appropriate and adequate nutrition, protective shelter from the elements, and appropriate clothing related to weather conditions, or failure to provide cleanliness and general supervision, or both.

'Psychological abuse or neglect' means severe maltreatment through acts or omissions that are injurious to the child's emotional, intellectual, or psychological capacity to function, including acts of violence against another person residing in the child's home.

'Sexual abuse' means the commission of sexual assault, sexual intercourse without consent, indecent exposure, deviate sexual conduct, ritual abuse, or incest.

'Sexual exploitation' means allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child to engage in a prostitution offense, or allowing, permitting, or encouraging sexual abuse of children.

'Witholding 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 reasonable medical judgment, will be most likely to be effective in ameliorating or correcting the conditions.

EXCEPTIONS

Mont. Code Ann. § 41-3-102(4)(b), (21)(b), (26)(b) (WESTLAW through 2001 Reg. Sess.)

This chapter may not be construed to require or justify a finding of child abuse or neglect for the sole reason that a parent or legal guardian, due to religious beliefs, does not provide adequate health 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 substantial risk of serious harm to the child.

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 or other person responsible for the child's welfare.

The term 'withholding of medically indicated treatment' 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:

The infant is chronically and irreversibly comatose;

The provision of treatment would merely prolong dying; and would not be effective in ameliorating or correcting all of the infant's life-threatening conditions; or would be otherwise be futile in terms of the survival of the infant; or

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, '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 1 year of age or older.