Chapter 547

2006 -- H 6903

Enacted 07/10/06

A N A C T

RELATING TO ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN

Introduced By: Representative Joanne M. Giannini

Date Introduced: January 25, 2006

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 section 11-34-1 et seq., entitled

"Prostitution and Lewdness"; 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 in 11-37-1-et seq., 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 section 11-5-11, or physically helpless as defined by the provisions of section 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) "Institution" means any private or public hospital or other facility providing medical

and/or psychiatric diagnosis, treatment, and care.

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

the state police.

      (8) "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.

      (9) "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 section 40-11-6 of the

general laws.

      (10) "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) "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) "Shaken baby syndrome" is 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:

40-11-17. Shaken baby syndrome prevention initiative. – (a) The department of health

shall collaborate with the department of children, youth, and families and other state agencies

serving families and children, the medical community, law enforcement, human service

providers, and child advocacy organizations to develop and implement a comprehensive,

statewide initiative to reduce death and disability resulting from shaken baby syndrome. Said

initiative shall include, but not be limited to:

(1) instituting a patient education program on shaken baby syndrome prevention for all

parents of newborns;

(2) instituting education and training programs on the prevention and diagnosis of shaken

baby syndrome for other parents, caregivers, physicians and professionals serving children and

families;

(3) assisting in the development of programs to support and serve victims and families

affected by shaken baby syndrome; and

(4) conducting surveillance and data collection on the incidence of shaken baby

syndrome and traumatic brain injury in infants and young children.

(b) The department of health shall promulgate all rules and regulations necessary to

effectuate the purposes of this section.

(c) The department of health, in collaboration with the department of children, youth, and

families, shall report annually to the general assembly, the status of the shaken baby syndrome

prevention initiative.

     SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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LC00866

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