N.Y. Family Court Act § 1012: Definitions

§ 1012. Definitions. When used in this article and unless the specific

context indicates otherwise:

(a) "Respondent" includes any parent or other person legally

responsible for a child's care who is alleged to have abused or

neglected such child;

(b) "Child" means any person or persons alleged to have been abused or

neglected, whichever the case may be;

(c) "A case involving abuse" means any proceeding under this article

in which there are allegations that one or more of the children of, or

the legal responsibility of, the respondent are abused children;

(d) "Drug" means any substance defined as a controlled substance in

section thirty-three hundred six of the public health law;

(e) "Abused child" means a child less than eighteen years of age whose

parent or other person legally responsible for his care

(i) inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon such child physical injury

by other than accidental means which causes or creates a substantial

risk of death, or serious or protracted disfigurement, or protracted

impairment of physical or emotional health or protracted loss or

impairment of the function of any bodily organ, or

(ii) creates or allows to be created a substantial risk of physical

injury to such child by other than accidental means which would be

likely to cause death or serious or protracted disfigurement, or

protracted impairment of physical or emotional health or protracted loss

or impairment of the function of any bodily organ, or

(iii) (A) commits, or allows to be committed an offense against such

child defined in article one hundred thirty of the penal law; (B)

allows, permits or encourages such child to engage in any act described

in sections 230.25, 230.30, 230.32 and 230.34-a of the penal law; (C)

commits any of the acts described in sections 255.25, 255.26 and 255.27

of the penal law; (D) allows such child to engage in acts or conduct

described in article two hundred sixty-three of the penal law; or (E)

permits or encourages such child to engage in any act or commits or

allows to be committed against such child any offense that would render

such child either a victim of sex trafficking or a victim of severe

forms of trafficking in persons pursuant to 22 U.S.C. 7102 as enacted by

public law 106-386 or any successor federal statute; (F) provided,

however, that (1) the corroboration requirements contained in the penal

law and (2) the age requirement for the application of article two

hundred sixty-three of such law shall not apply to proceedings under

this article.

(f) "Neglected child" means a child less than eighteen years of age

(i) whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or

is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of

his parent or other person legally responsible for his care to exercise

a minimum degree of care

(A) in supplying the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter or

education in accordance with the provisions of part one of article

sixty-five of the education law, or medical, dental, optometrical or

surgical care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or

other reasonable means to do so, or, in the case of an alleged failure

of the respondent to provide education to the child, notwithstanding the

efforts of the school district or local educational agency and child

protective agency to ameliorate such alleged failure prior to the filing

of the petition; or

(B) in providing the child with proper supervision or guardianship, by

unreasonably inflicting or allowing to be inflicted harm, or a

substantial risk thereof, including the infliction of excessive corporal

punishment; or by misusing a drug or drugs; or by misusing alcoholic

beverages to the extent that he loses self-control of his actions; or by

any other acts of a similarly serious nature requiring the aid of the

court; provided, however, that where the respondent is voluntarily and

regularly participating in a rehabilitative program, evidence that the

respondent has repeatedly misused a drug or drugs or alcoholic beverages

to the extent that he loses self-control of his actions shall not

establish that the child is a neglected child in the absence of evidence

establishing that the child's physical, mental or emotional condition

has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as set

forth in paragraph (i) of this subdivision; or

(ii) who has been abandoned, in accordance with the definition and

other criteria set forth in subdivision five of section three hundred

eighty-four-b of the social services law, by his parents or other person

legally responsible for his care.

(g) "Person legally responsible" includes the child's custodian,

guardian, any other person responsible for the child's care at the

relevant time. Custodian may include any person continually or at

regular intervals found in the same household as the child when the

conduct of such person causes or contributes to the abuse or neglect of

the child.

(h) "Impairment of emotional health" and "impairment of mental or

emotional condition" includes a state of substantially diminished

psychological or intellectual functioning in relation to, but not

limited to, such factors as failure to thrive, control of aggressive or

self-destructive impulses, ability to think and reason, or acting out or

misbehavior, including ungovernability or habitual truancy; provided,

however, that such impairment must be clearly attributable to the

unwillingness or inability of the respondent to exercise a minimum

degree of care toward the child.

(i) "Child protective agency" means the child protective service of

the appropriate local department of social services or such other

agencies with whom the local department has arranged for the provision

of child protective services under the local plan for child protective

services or an Indian tribe that has entered into an agreement with the

state department of social services pursuant to section thirty-nine of

the social services law to provide child protective services.

(j) "Aggravated circumstances" means where a child has been either

severely or repeatedly abused, as defined in subdivision eight of

section three hundred eighty-four-b of the social services law; or where

a child has subsequently been found to be an abused child, as defined in

paragraph (i) or (iii) of subdivision (e) of this section, within five

years after return home following placement in foster care as a result

of being found to be a neglected child, as defined in subdivision (f) of

this section, provided that the respondent or respondents in each of the

foregoing proceedings was the same; or where the court finds by clear

and convincing evidence that the parent of a child in foster care has

refused and has failed completely, over a period of at least six months

from the date of removal, to engage in services necessary to eliminate

the risk of abuse or neglect if returned to the parent, and has failed

to secure services on his or her own or otherwise adequately prepare for

the return home and, after being informed by the court that such an

admission could eliminate the requirement that the local department of

social services provide reunification services to the parent, the parent

has stated in court under oath that he or she intends to continue to

refuse such necessary services and is unwilling to secure such services

independently or otherwise prepare for the child's return home;

provided, however, that if the court finds that adequate justification

exists for the failure to engage in or secure such services, including

but not limited to a lack of child care, a lack of transportation, and

an inability to attend services that conflict with the parent's work

schedule, such failure shall not constitute an aggravated circumstance;

or where a court has determined a child five days old or younger was

abandoned by a parent with an intent to wholly abandon such child and

with the intent that the child be safe from physical injury and cared

for in an appropriate manner.

(k) "Permanency hearing" means a hearing held in accordance with

section one thousand eighty-nine of this act for the purpose of

reviewing the foster care status of the child and the appropriateness of

the permanency plan developed by the social services district or agency.

(l) "Parent" means a person who is recognized under the laws of the

state of New York to be the child's legal parent.

(m) "Relative" means any person who is related to the child by blood,

marriage or adoption and who is not a parent, putative parent or

relative of a putative parent of the child.

(n) "Suitable person" means any person who plays or has played a

significant positive role in the child's life or in the life of the

child's family.