Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect North Dakota

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Sexual exploitation

Emotional/mental injury

Abandonment

Categories of Maltreatment Not Defined in Statute

DEFINITIONS

N.D. Cent. Code § 50-25.1-02 (West, WESTLAW through N.D. 2003 Legis. Serv., S.B. 2212)

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

The child's parent, guardian, or foster parent;

An employee of a public or private school or nonresidential child care facility;

An employee of a public or private residential
home, institution, or agency; or

A person responsible for the child's welfare in a
residential setting.

'Abused child' means an individual under the age of 18 years:

Who is suffering from serious physical harm or traumatic abuse caused by other than accidental means by a person responsible for the child's welfare; or

Who is suffering from or was subjected to any act involving that individual in violation of §§ 12.1-20-01 through 12.1-20-08 concerning sex offenses against children.

'Harm' means negative changes in a child's health which occur when a person responsible for the child's welfare:

Inflicts, or allows to be inflicted, upon the child, physical or mental injury, including injuries sustained as a result of excessive corporal punishment; or

Commits, allows to be committed, or conspires to commit, against the child, a sex offense as defined in chapter 12.1-20.

N.D. Cent. Code § 27-20-02 (West, WESTLAW through N.D. 2003 Legis. Serv., S.B. 2212)

'Abandon' means:

As to a parent of a child not in the custody of that parent, failure by the noncustodial parent significantly without justifiable cause to communicate with the child; or to provide for the care and support of the child as required by law.

As to a parent of a child in that parent's custody: To leave the child for an indefinite period without making firm and agreed plans with the child's immediate caregiver for the parents' resumption of physical custody;following the child's birth or treatment at a hospital, to fail to arrange for the child's discharge within 10 days after the child no longer requires hospital care; or to willfully fail to furnish food, shelter, clothing, or medical attention reasonably sufficient to meet the child's needs.

'Abandoned infant' means a child who has been abandoned before the reaching the age of one year.

'Child' means an individual who is:

Under the age of 18 years and is neither married and cohabiting with spouse nor in the military service of the United States; or

Under the age of 20 years with respect to a delinquent act committed while under the age of 18 years.

'Deprived child' means a child who:

Is without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for the child's physical, mental, or emotional health, or morals, and the deprivation is not due primarily to the lack of financial means of the child's parents, guardian, or other custodian;

Has been placed for care or adoption in violation of law;

Has been abandoned by the child's parents, guardian, or other custodian;

Is without proper parental care, control, or education as required by law, or other care and control necessary for the child's well-being because of the physical, mental, emotional, or other illness or disability of the child's parent or parents, and that such lack of care is not due to a willful act of commission or act of omission by the child's parents, and care is requested by a parent;

Is in need of treatment and whose parents, guardian, or other custodian have refused to participate in treatment as ordered by the juvenile court;

Was subject to prenatal exposure to chronic and severe use of alcohol or any controlled substance in a manner not lawfully prescribed by a practitioner; or

Is present in an environment subjecting the child to exposure to a controlled substance, or drug paraphernalia as prohibited by § 19-03.1-22.2.