{"data":{"id":"us-mo/mo.-rev.-stat.-452.1202","jurisdiction":"us-mo","citation":"Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.1202","heading":"Definitions.","body":"In sections 452.1200 to 452.1258:\n(1) \"Adult\" means an individual who has attained eighteen years of age or an emancipated minor;\n(2) \"Caretaking authority\" means the right to live with and care for a child on a day-to-day basis. The term includes physical custody, parenting time, right to access, and visitation;\n(3) \"Child\" means:\n(a) An unemancipated individual who has not attained eighteen years of age; or\n(b) An adult son or daughter by birth or adoption, or under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258, who is the subject of a court order concerning custodial responsibility;\n(4) \"Court\" means a tribunal authorized under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258 to make, enforce, or modify a decision regarding custodial responsibility;\n(5) \"Custodial responsibility\" includes all powers and duties relating to caretaking authority and decision-making authority for a child. The term includes physical custody, legal custody, parenting time, right to access, visitation, and authority to grant limited contact with a child;\n(6) \"Decision-making authority\" means the power to make important decisions regarding a child, including decisions regarding the child's education, religious training, health care, extracurricular activities, and travel. The term does not include the power to make decisions that necessarily accompany a grant of caretaking authority;\n(7) \"Deploying parent\" means a service member, who is deployed or has been notified of impending deployment and is:\n(a) A parent of a child under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258; or\n(b) An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258;\n(8) \"Deployment\" means the movement or mobilization of a service member for more than ninety days but less than eighteen months pursuant to uniformed service orders that:\n(a) Are designated as unaccompanied;\n(b) Do not authorize dependent travel; or\n(c) Otherwise do not permit the movement of family members to the location to which the service member is deployed;\n(9) \"Family member\" means a sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, stepparent, or grandparent of a child or an individual recognized to be in a familial relationship with a child under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258;\n(10) \"Limited contact\" means the authority of a nonparent to visit a child for a limited time. The term includes authority to take the child to a place other than the residence of the child;\n(11) \"Nonparent\" means an individual other than a deploying parent or other parent;\n(12) \"Other parent\" means an individual who, in common with a deploying parent, is:\n(a) A parent of a child under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258; or\n(b) An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than sections 452.1200 to 452.1258;\n(13) \"Record\" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form;\n(14) \"Return from deployment\" means the conclusion of a service member's deployment as specified in uniformed service orders;\n(15) \"Service member\" means a member of a uniformed service;\n(16) \"Sign\" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:\n(a) To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or\n(b) To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process;\n(17) \"State\" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States;\n(18) \"Uniformed service\" means:\n(a) Active and reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of the United States;\n(b) The United States Merchant Marine;\n(c) The commissioned corps of the United States Public Health Service;\n(d) The commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States; or\n(e) The National Guard of a state.","path":["Title XXX - DOMESTIC RELATIONS","Chapter 452 - Dissolution of Marriage, Divorce, Alimony and Separate Maintenance"],"source_url":"https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=452.1202","current_through":"2026 legislative session (floor)","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-03T22:23:28Z","sha256":"12044c0384d5de45a3fb8b50727c335d1d49244105725b39b4bca7be044f8f87","source_id":"us-mo","stale":false,"prev":"us-mo/mo.-rev.-stat.-452.1200","next":"us-mo/mo.-rev.-stat.-452.1204"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}