Section R512-80-2 - Definitions(1) "Abandonment" means conduct by either a parent or legal guardian showing a conscious disregard for parental obligations where that disregard leads to the destruction of the parent-child relationship, except in the case of the safe relinquishment of a newborn child pursuant to Section 80-4-502. Abandonment also includes conduct specified in Section 80-4-302.(2) "Abuse" is as defined in Section 80-1-102. It includes child endangerment, Domestic Violence Related Child Abuse, emotional abuse, fetal exposure to alcohol or other harmful substances, dealing in material harmful to a child, Pediatric Condition Falsification or medical child abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and sexual exploitation.(3) "Child endangerment" means subjecting a child to threatened harm. This also includes conduct outlined in Sections 76-5-112 and 76-5-112.5.(4) "Chronic abuse" is as defined in Section 80-1-102.(5) "Chronic neglect" is as defined in Section 80-1-102.(6) "Cohabitant" is as defined in Section 78B-7-102.(7) "Custodian" means a person who has legal custody of a child or a person responsible for a child's care.(8) "Dealing in material harmful to a child" means distributing, providing, or transferring possession; exhibiting or showing; or allowing immediate access to material harmful to a child or any other conduct constituting an offense under Sections 76-10-1201 through 76-10-1206.(9) "Dependency" is as defined in Section 80-1-102. Dependency includes safe relinquishment of a newborn child as provided in Section 80-4-502.(10) "Domestic Violence Related Child Abuse" means domestic violence between cohabitants in the presence of a child. It may be an isolated incident or a pattern of conduct as defined in Rule R512-205.(11) "Educational neglect" means failure or refusal to make a good faith effort to ensure that a child receives an appropriate education, after receiving notice that the child has been frequently absent from school without good cause or that the parent has failed to cooperate with school authorities in a reasonable manner in accordance with Sections 80-1-102 and 53G-6-210.(12) "Emotional abuse" means engaging in conduct or threatening a child with conduct that causes or can reasonably be expected to cause the child emotional harm. This includes: (a) demeaning or derogatory remarks that affect or can reasonably be expected to affect a child's development of self and social competence; or(b) threatening harm, rejecting, isolating, terrorizing, ignoring, or corrupting.(13) "Environmental neglect" means an environment that poses an unreasonable risk to the physical health or safety of a child.(14) "Failure to protect" means failure to take reasonable action to remedy or prevent child abuse or neglect. Failure to protect includes the conduct of a non-abusive parent or guardian who knows the identity of the abuser or the person neglecting the child, but lies, conceals, or fails to report the abuse or neglect or the alleged perpetrator's identity.(15) "Failure to thrive" means a medically diagnosed condition in which the child fails to develop physically. This condition is typically indicated by inadequate weight gain.(16) "Fetal exposure to alcohol or other harmful substances" means a condition in which a newborn is adversely affected by the child's mother's substance abuse during pregnancy, has fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or demonstrates drug or alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Newborn withdrawal symptoms due to medications taken by the mother as legally prescribed, without indication of misuse, are expected and do not constitute fetal exposure.(17) "Harm" is as defined in Section 80-1-102.(18)(a) "Harmful to minors" is in accordance with Section 76-10-1201 and means that quality of any description or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse when it: (i) taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of sex of minors;(ii) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and(iii) taken as a whole does not have serious value for minors.(b) Serious value includes only serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors."(19) "Material" is in accordance with Section 76-10-1201 and means anything printed or written or any picture, drawing, photograph, motion picture, or pictorial representation, or any statue or other figure, or any recording or transcription, or any mechanical, chemical, or electrical reproduction, or anything which is or may be used as a means of communication. Material includes undeveloped photographs, molds, printing plates, and other latent representational objects.(20) "Medical neglect" means failure or refusal to provide proper or necessary medical, dental, or mental health care or to comply with the recommendations of a medical, dental, or mental health professional necessary to the child's health, safety, or well-being. Exceptions and limitations are as provided in Section 80-1-102.(21) "Molestation" is as defined in Section 80-1-102.(22) "Neglect" is as defined in Section 80-1-102. It includes abandonment, educational neglect, environmental neglect, failure to protect, failure to thrive, medical neglect, non-supervision, physical neglect, sibling at risk, and an unregulated child custody transfer.(23) "Non-supervision" means the child is subjected to accidental harm or an unreasonable risk of accidental harm due to failure to supervise the child's activities at a level consistent with the child's age and maturity.(24) "Pediatric Condition Falsification," formerly Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, means a cluster of symptoms or signs, circumstantially related, in which the parent or guardian misrepresents information or simulates or produces illness in a child, has knowledge about the etiology of the child's illness but denies such knowledge, seeks multiple medical procedures, or acute symptoms and signs of the illness stop when the child is separated from the parent or guardian.(25) "Perpetrator" means a person substantially responsible for causing child abuse or neglect, or a person responsible for a child's care who permits another to abuse or neglect a child, and includes a person who engages in conduct in Section 76-5-109.(26) "Physical abuse" means non-accidental physical harm or threatened physical harm of a child that may or may not be visible. It includes unexplained physical harm of an infant, toddler, disabled, or non-verbal child. "Physical harm" includes "physical injury" and "serious physical injury" as defined in Section 76-5-109.(27) "Physical neglect" means failure to provide for a child's basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, or other care necessary for the child's health, safety, morals, or well-being.(28) "Serious harm" includes "serious physical injury" as defined in Section 76-5-109.(29) "Severe abuse" is as defined in Section 80-1-102 for all categories except sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, abandonment, and certain conduct by an individual under 18 years of age. In Section 80-1-102: (a) if committed by an individual 18 years of age, all sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or abandonment constitute severe abuse, irrespective of whether there is evidence of harm or threatened harm; or(b) if committed by an individual under 18 years of age, serious physical injury or sexual conduct that indicates a significant risk of harm constitute severe abuse.(30) "Severe neglect" is as defined as in Section 80-1-102.(31) "Sexual abuse" is as defined in Section 80-1-102. Sexual abuse also includes forcing a child under 18 years of age into marriage or cohabitation with an adult in an intimate relationship.(32) "Sexual exploitation" is as defined in Section 80-1-102.(33) "Sibling at risk" means a child who is at risk of being abused or neglected because another child in the same home or with the same caregiver has been or is abused or neglected.(34) "Threatened harm" is as defined in Section 80-1-102.Utah Admin. Code R512-80-2
Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2020-16, effective 8/10/2020Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2022-07, effective 3/11/2022Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2024-01, effective 12/28/2023