Child Abuse Identification and Reporting: The Pennsylvania Requirement _____________________________
In addition, the Code explicitly excludes specific acts and inju- ries from the definition of child abuse. Effective December 31, 2014, the following are considered exclusions to the definition of child abuse [44]: • Environmental factors: No child shall be deemed to be physically or mentally abused based on injuries that result solely from environmental factors, such as inadequate housing, furnishings, income, clothing, and medical care, that are beyond the control of the parent or person responsible for the child’s welfare with whom the child resides. This shall not apply to any child-care service, excluding an adoptive parent. • Practice of religious beliefs: If, upon investigation, the county agency determines that a child has not been provided needed medical or surgical care because of sincerely held religious beliefs of the child’s parents or relative within the third degree of consanguinity and with whom the child resides, which beliefs are consistent with those of a bona fide religion, the child shall not be deemed to be physically or mentally abused. In such cases the following shall apply: ‒ The county agency shall closely monitor the child and the child’s family and shall seek court-ordered medical intervention when the lack of medical or surgical care threatens the child’s life or long-term health. ‒ All correspondence with a subject of the report and the records of the department and the county agency shall not reference child abuse and shall acknowledge the religious basis for the child’s condition. ‒ The family shall be referred for general protective services, if appropriate. ‒ This subsection shall not apply if the failure to provide needed medical or surgical care causes the death of the child. ‒ This subsection shall not apply to any child-care service as defined in this chapter, excluding an adoptive parent. • Use of force for supervision, control, and safety purposes: Subject to the rights of parents, the use of reasonable force on or against a child by the child’s own parent or person responsible for the child’s welfare shall not be considered child abuse if any of the following conditions apply: ‒ The use of reasonable force constitutes incidental, minor, or reasonable physical contact with the child or other actions that are designed to maintain order and control.
• Causing bodily injury to a child through any recent act or failure to act • Fabricating, feigning, or intentionally exaggerating or inducing a medical symptom or disease that results in a potentially harmful medical evaluation or treatment to the child through any recent act • Causing or substantially contributing to serious mental injury to a child through any act or failure to act or a series of such acts or failures to act • Causing sexual abuse or exploitation of a child through any act or failure to act • Creating a reasonable likelihood of bodily injury to a child through any recent act or failure to act • Creating a likelihood of sexual abuse or exploitation of a child through any recent act or failure to act • Causing serious physical neglect of a child • Engaging in any of the following recent acts: ‒ Kicking, biting, throwing, burning, stabbing, or cutting a child in a manner that endangers the child ‒ Unreasonably restraining or confining a child, based on consideration of the method, location, or duration of the restraint or confinement ‒ Forcefully shaking a child younger than 1 year of age ‒ Forcefully slapping or otherwise striking a child younger than 1 year of age ‒ Interfering with the breathing of a child ‒ Causing a child to be present at a location while a violation relating to the operation of methamphetamine laboratory is occurring, provided that the violation is being investigated by law enforcement ‒ Leaving a child unsupervised with an
individual, other than the child’s parent, who the actor knows or reasonably should have known a) is required to register as a Tier II or Tier III sexual offender, where the victim of the sexual offense was younger than 18 years
of age when the crime was committed; b) has been determined to be a sexually violent predator; or c) has been determined to be a sexually violent delinquent child • Causing the death of the child through any act or failure to act • Engaging a child in a severe form of trafficking in persons or sex trafficking, as those terms are defined under section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
5
EliteLearning.com/Dental
Book Code: DPA1525
Powered by FlippingBook