(a) "Respondent" includes any parent or other person legally
responsible for a child's care who is alleged to have abused or
neglected such child;
(b) "Child" means any person or persons alleged to have been abused or
neglected, whichever the case may be;
(c) "A case involving abuse" means any proceeding under this article
in which there are allegations that one or more of the children of, or
the legal responsibility of, the respondent are abused children;
(d) "Drug" means any substance defined as a controlled substance in
section thirty-three hundred six of the public health law;
(e) "Abused child" means a child less than eighteen years of age whose
parent or other person legally responsible for his care
(i) inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon such child physical injury
by other than accidental means which causes or creates a substantial
risk of death, or serious or protracted disfigurement, or protracted
impairment of physical or emotional health or protracted loss or
impairment of the function of any bodily organ, or
(ii) creates or allows to be created a substantial risk of physical
injury to such child by other than accidental means which would be
likely to cause death or serious or protracted disfigurement, or
protracted impairment of physical or emotional health or protracted loss
or impairment of the function of any bodily organ, or
(iii) commits, or allows to be committed an offense against such
child defined in article one hundred thirty of the penal law; allows,
permits or encourages such child to engage in any act described in
sections 230.25, 230.30 and 230.32 of the penal law; commits any of the
acts described in section 255.25 of the penal law; or allows such child
to engage in acts or conduct described in article two hundred
sixty-three of the penal law provided, however, that (a) the
corroboration requirements contained in the penal law and (b) the age
requirement for the application of article two hundred sixty-three of
such law shall not apply to proceedings under this article.
(f) "Neglected child" means a child less than eighteen years of age
(i) whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or
is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of
his parent or other person legally responsible for his care to exercise
a minimum degree of care
(A) in supplying the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter or
education in accordance with the provisions of part one of article
sixty-five of the education law, or medical, dental, optometrical or
surgical care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or
other reasonable means to do so; or
(B) in providing the child with proper supervision or guardianship, by
unreasonably inflicting or allowing to be inflicted harm, or a
substantial risk thereof, including the infliction of excessive corporal
punishment; or by misusing a drug or drugs; or by misusing alcoholic
beverages to the extent that he loses self-control of his actions; or by
any other acts of a similarly serious nature requiring the aid of the
court; provided, however, that where the respondent is voluntarily and
regularly participating in a rehabilitative program, evidence that the
respondent has repeatedly misused a drug or drugs or alcoholic beverages
to the extent that he loses self-control of his actions shall not
establish that the child is a neglected child in the absence of evidence
establishing that the child's physical, mental or emotional condition
has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as set
forth in paragraph (i) of this subdivision; or
(ii) who has been abandoned, in accordance with the definition and other criteria set forth in subdivision five of section three hundred eighty-four-b of the social services law, by his parents or other person legally responsible for his care. (g) "Person legally responsible" includes the child's custodian, guardian, any other person responsible for the child's care at the relevant time. Custodian may include any person continually or at regular intervals found in the same household as the child when the conduct of such person causes or contributes to the abuse or neglect of the child. (h) "Impairment of emotional health" and "impairment of mental or emotional condition" includes a state of substantially diminished psychological or intellectual functioning in relation to, but not limited to, such factors as failure to thrive, control of aggressive or self-destructive impulses, ability to think and reason, or acting out or misbehavior, including incorrigibility, ungovernability or habitual truancy; provided, however, that such impairment must be clearly attributable to the unwillingness or inability of the respondent to exercise a minimum degree of care toward the child. (i) "Child protective agency" means any duly authorized society for the prevention of cruelty to children or the child protective service of the appropriate local department of social services or such other agencies with whom the local department has arranged for the provision of child protective services under the local plan for child protective services or an Indian tribe that has entered into an agreement with the state department of social services pursuant to section thirty-nine of the social services law to provide child protective services. (j) "Aggravated circumstances" means where a child has been either severely or repeatedly abused, as defined in subdivision eight of section three hundred eighty-four-b of the social services law. (k) "Permanency hearing" means a hearing held in accordance with section one thousand thirty-nine-b, one thousand fifty-two, one thousand fifty-five or one thousand fifty-five-a of this article for the purpose of reviewing the foster care status of the child and the appropriateness of the permanency plan developed by the social services official.
