Section 36-7-102 - Chapter definitionsIn this chapter:
(1) "Adult" means an individual who has attained eighteen (18) years of age or is an emancipated minor;(2) "Caretaking authority" means the right to live with and care for a child on a day-to-day basis. "Caretaking authority" includes physical custody, parenting time, right to access, and visitation;(3) "Child" means: (A) An unemancipated individual who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age; or(B) An adult son or daughter by birth or adoption, or under law of this state other than this chapter, who is the subject of a court order concerning custodial responsibility;(4) "Court" means a tribunal, including an administrative agency, authorized under law of this state other than this chapter to make, enforce, or modify a decision regarding custodial responsibility;(5) "Custodial responsibility" includes all powers and duties relating to caretaking authority and decision-making authority for a child. "Custodial responsibility" includes physical custody, legal custody, parenting time, right to access, visitation, and authority to grant limited contact with a child;(6)(A) "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;(B) "Decision-making authority" does not include the power to make decisions that necessarily accompany a grant of caretaking authority;(7) "Deploying parent" means a service member who is deployed or has been notified of impending deployment and is: (A) A parent of a child under law of this state other than this chapter; or(B) An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than this chapter;(8) "Deployment" means the movement or mobilization of a service member for more than thirty (30) days pursuant to uniformed service orders that: (A) Are designated as unaccompanied;(B) Do not authorize dependent travel; or(C) Otherwise do not permit the movement of family members to the location to which the service member is deployed;(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 this chapter;(10) "Limited contact" means the authority of a nonparent to visit a child for a limited time. "Limited contact" includes authority to take the child to a place other than the residence of the child;(11) "Nonparent" means an individual other than a deploying parent or other parent;(12) "Other parent" means an individual who, in common with a deploying parent, is: (A) A parent of a child under law of this state other than this chapter; or(B) An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than this chapter;(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;(14) "Return from deployment" means the conclusion of a service member's deployment as specified in uniformed service orders;(15) "Service member" means a member of a uniformed service;(16) "Sign" means with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record: (A) To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or(B) To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process;(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; and(18) "Uniformed service" means: (A) Active and reserve components of the army, navy, air force, marine corps, or coast guard of the United States;(B) The United States merchant marine;(C) The commissioned corps of the United States public health service;(D) The commissioned corps of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration of the United States; or(E) The national guard of a state.Added by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 798,s 1, eff. 7/1/2014.