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Alaska Statutes.

Title 47. Welfare, Social Services and Institutions

Chapter 17. Child Protection

Section 290. Definitions.

AS 47.17.290. Definitions.

In this chapter

(1) "child" means a person under 18 years of age;

(2) "child abuse or neglect" means the physical injury or neglect, mental injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or maltreatment of a child under the age of 18 by a person under circumstances that indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby; in this paragraph, "mental injury" means an injury to the emotional well-being, or intellectual or psychological capacity of a child, as evidenced by an observable and substantial impairment in the child's ability to function;

(3) "child care provider" means an adult individual, including a foster parent or an employee of an organization, who provides care and supervision to a child for compensation or reimbursement;

(4) "criminal negligence" has the meaning given in AS 11.81.900 ;

(5) "department means the Department of Health and Social Services;

(6) "immediately" means as soon as is reasonably possible, and no later than 24 hours;

(7) "institution" means a private or public hospital or other facility providing medical diagnosis, treatment, or care;

(8) "maltreatment" means an act or omission that results in circumstances in which there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child may be a child in need of aid, as described in AS 47.10.011 , except that, for purposes of this chapter, the act or omission need not have been committed by the child's parent, custodian, or guardian;

(9) "mental injury" means a serious injury to the child as evidenced by an observable and substantial impairment in the child's ability to function in a developmentally appropriate manner and the existence of that impairment is supported by the opinion of a qualified expert witness;

(10) "neglect" means the failure by a person responsible for the child's welfare to provide necessary food, care, clothing, shelter, or medical attention for a child;

(11) "organization" means a group or entity that provides care and supervision for compensation to a child not related to the caregiver, and includes a child care facility, pre-elementary school, head start center, child foster home, residential child care facility, recreation program, children's camp, and children's club;

(12) "person responsible for the child's welfare" means the child's parent, guardian, foster parent, a person responsible for the child's care at the time of the alleged child abuse or neglect, or a person responsible for the child's welfare in a public or private residential agency or institution;

(13) "practitioner of the healing arts" includes chiropractors, mental health counselors, social workers, dental hygienists, dentists, health aides, nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nurse aides, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, optometrists, osteopaths, naturopaths, physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, physicians, physician's assistants, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychological associates, audiologists and speech-language pathologists licensed under AS 08.11, hearing aid dealers licensed under AS 08.55, marital and family therapists licensed under AS 08.63, religious healing practitioners, acupuncturists, and surgeons;

(14) "reasonable cause to suspect" means cause, based on all the facts and circumstances known to the person, that would lead a reasonable person to believe that something might be the case;

(15) "school district" means a city or borough school district or regional educational attendance area.

(16) "sexual exploitation" includes

(A) allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child to engage in prostitution prohibited by AS 11.66.100 - 11.66.150, by a person responsible for the child's welfare;

(B) allowing, permitting, encouraging, or engaging in activity prohibited by AS 11.41.455 (a), by a person responsible for the child's welfare.

Note to HTML Version:

This version of the Alaska Statutes is current through December, 2004. The Alaska Statutes were automatically converted to HTML from a plain text format. Every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy, but this can not be guaranteed. If it is critical that the precise terms of the Alaska Statutes be known, it is recommended that more formal sources be consulted. For statutes adopted after the effective date of these statutes, see, Alaska State Legislature If any errors are found, please e-mail Touch N' Go systems at E-mail. We hope you find this information useful.

Last modified 9/3/2005