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Abandonment includes instances when the parent, without justifiable cause:
(1) left the child without provision for the child's identification for a period of fourteen days; or
(2) left the child with others, including the other parent or an agency, without provision for support and without communication for a period of:
(a) three months if the child was under six years of age at the commencement of the three-month period; or
(b) six months if the child was over six years of age at the commencement of the six-month period. §32A-4-2.
Abused child means a child:
(1) who has suffered or who is at risk of suffering serious harm because of the action or inaction of the child's parent, guardian or custodian;
(2) who has suffered physical abuse, emotional abuse or psychological abuse inflicted or caused by the child's parent, guardian or custodian;
(3) who has suffered sexual abuse or sexual exploitation inflicted by the child's parent, guardian or custodian;
(4) whose parent, guardian or custodian has knowingly, intentionally or negligently placed the child in a situation that may endanger the child's life or health; or
(5) whose parent, guardian or custodian has knowingly or intentionally tortured, cruelly confined or cruelly punished the child. §32A-4-2.
Acknowledged father, under the Adoption Act, means a father who:
(1) acknowledges paternity of the adoptee (i.e., the person who is the subject of an adoption petition) pursuant to the putative father registry, as provided for in §32A-5-20 NMSA 1978;
(2) is named, with his consent, as the adoptee's father on the adoptee's birth certificate;
(3) is obligated to support the adoptee under a written voluntary promise or pursuant to a court order; or
(4) has openly held out the adoptee as his own child by establishing a custodial, personal or financial relationship with the adoptee, as follows:
(a) for an adoptee under six months old at the time of placement,
- Has initiated an action to establish paternity;
- Is living with the adoptee at the time the adoption petition is filed;
- Has lived with the mother a minimum of 90 days during the 280 day period prior to birth or placement of the adoptee;
- Has lived with the adoptee within the 90 days immediately preceding the adoptive placement;
- Has provided reasonable and fair financial support to the mother during the pregnancy and in connection with the adoptee’s birth in accordance with his means and when not prevent from doing so by the person or agency having lawful custody of the adoptee or the adoptee’s mother;
- Has continuously paid child support in at least the amount provided in §40-4-11.1, the child support guidelines, or has brought current any delinquent child support payments; or
- Any other factor the court deems necessary to establish a custodial, personal or financial relationship with the adoptee; or
(b) for an adoptee over six months at the time of placement:
- Has initiated an action to establish paternity;
- Has lived with the adoptee within the 90 days before the placement;
- Has continuously paid child support in at least the amount provided in §40-4-11.1, the child support guidelines, since the adoptee’s birth or is making reasonable efforts to bring del inquent payments current;
- Has contact with the adoptee on a monthly basis when physically and financially able and when not prevented by the person or agency with lawful custody;
- Has regular communcation with the adoptee or with the person or agency having care or custody of the adoptee, when physically and financially unable to visit the adoptee and when not prevented from doing so by the person or agency with lawful custody. §32A-5-3.
Adult means a person who is eighteen years of age or older. §32A-1-4.
Aggravated circumstances include those circumstances in which the parent, guardian or custodian has:
(1) attempted, conspired to cause or caused great bodily harm to the child or great bodily harm or death to the child's sibling;
(2) attempted, conspired to cause or caused great bodily harm or death to another parent, guardian or custodian of the child;
(3) attempted, conspired to subject or has subjected the child to torture, chronic abuse or sexual abuse; or
(4) had his parental rights over a sibling of the child terminated involuntarily. §32A-4-2.
Alleged father means an individual whom the biological mother has identified as the biological father, but the individual has not acknowledged paternity or registered with the putative father registry, as provided for in §32A-5-20 NMSA 1978. §32A-5-3.
Child means a person who is less than eighteen years old. §32A-1-4.
Court appointed special advocate or CASA means a person appointed as a CASA, pursuant to the provisions of the Children's Court Rules, who assists the court in determining the best interests of the child by investigating the case and submitting a report to the court. §32A-1-4.
Custodian means an adult with whom the child lives who is not a parent or guardian. §32A-1-4 (definition amended in 2005).
Department, or CYFD, means the Children, Youth and Families Department, unless otherwise specified. §32A-1-4.
Foster parent means a person, including a relative of the child, licensed or certified by the department or a child placement agency to provide care for children in the custody of the department or agency. §32A-1-4.
Great bodily harm means an injury to a person that creates a high probability of death, that causes serious disfigurement or that results in permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any member or organ of the body. §32A-4-2.
Guardian means a person appointed as a guardian by a court or Indian tribal authority or a person authorized to care for the child by a parental power of attorney as permitted by law. §32A-1-4 (definition amended in 2005).
Guardianship: Definition, formerly in §32A-1-4, was repealed in 2005.
Guardian ad litem or GAL means an attorney appointed by the children's court to represent and protect the best interests of the child in a court proceeding; provided that no party or employee or representative of a party to the proceeding shall be appointed to serve as a guardian ad litem. §32A-1-4.
Indian child means an unmarried person who is:
(1) less than eighteen years old;
(2) a member of an Indian tribe or is eligible for membership in an Indian tribe; and
(3) the biological child of a member of an Indian tribe. §32A-1-4.
Indian child's tribe means:
(1) the Indian tribe in which an Indian child is a member or eligible for membership; or
(2) in the case of an Indian child who is a member or eligible for membership in more than one tribe, the Indian tribe with which the Indian child has more significant contacts. §32A-1-4.
Indian tribe means a federally recognized Indian tribe, community or group pursuant to 25 U.S.C. §1903(1). §32A-1-4 (definition added in 2005).
Legal custody means a legal status created by order of the court or other court of competent jurisdiction or by operation of statute that vests in a person, department or agency the right to determine where and with whom a child shall live; the right and duty to protect, train and discipline the child and to provide the child with food, shelter, personal care, education and ordinary and emergency medical care; the right to consent to major medical, psychiatric, psychological and surgical treatment and to the administration of legally prescribed psychotropic medications pursuant to the Children's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Act; and the right to consent to the child's enlistment in the armed forces of the United States. §32A-1-4 (definition amended in 2005).
Neglected child means a child:
(1) who has been abandoned by the child's parent, guardian or custodian;
(2) who is without proper parental care and control or subsistence, education, medical or other care or control necessary for the child's well-being because of the faults or habits of the child's parent, guardian or custodian or the failure or refusal of the parent, guardian or custodian, when able to do so, to provide them;
(3) who has been physically or sexually abused, when the child's parent, guardian or custodian knew or should have known of the abuse and failed to take reasonable steps to protect the child from further harm;
(4) whose parent, guardian or custodian is unable to discharge his responsibilities to and for the child because of incarceration, hospitalization or physical or mental disorder or incapacity; or
(5) who has been placed for care or adoption in violation of the law; provided that nothing in the Children's Code shall be construed to imply that a child who is being provided with treatment by spiritual means alone through prayer, in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination, by a duly accredited practitioner thereof is for that reason alone a neglected child within the meaning of the Children's Code; and further provided that no child shall be denied the protection afforded to all children under the Children's Code. §32A-4-2.
Parent or Parents includes a biological or adoptive parent if the biological or adoptive parent has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in the care and custody of the child. §32A-1-4 (definition amended in 2005).
Permanency plan means a determination by the court that the child's interest will be served best by:
(1) reunification;
(2) placement for adoption after the parents' rights have been relinquished or terminated or after a motion has been filed to terminate parental rights;
(3) placement with a person who will be the child's permanent guardian;
(4) placement in the legal custody of the department with the child placed in the home of a fit and willing relative; or
(5) placement in the legal custody of the department under a planned permanent living arrangement. §32A-1-4 (definition amended in 2005).
Physical abuse includes but is not limited to any case in which the child exhibits evidence of skin bruising, bleeding, malnutrition, failure to thrive, burns, fracture of any bone, subdural hematoma, soft tissue swelling or death and:
(1) there is not a justifiable explanation for the condition or death;
(2) the explanation given for the condition is at variance with the degree or nature of the condition;
(3) the explanation given for the death is at variance with the nature of the death; or
(4) circumstances indicate that the condition or death may not be the product of an accidental occurrence. §32A-4-2
Preadoptive parent means a person with whom a child has been placed for adoption. §32A-1-4.
Presumed father means:
(1) the husband of the biological mother at the time the adoptee was born;
(2) an individual who was married to the mother and either the adoptee was born during the term of the marriage or the adoptee was born within three hundred days after the marriage was terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity or divorce; or
(3) before the adoptee's birth, an individual who attempted to marry the adoptee's biological mother by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid and if the attempted marriage:
(a) could be declared invalid only by a court, the adoptee was born during the attempted marriage or within three hundred days after its termination by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity or divorce; or
(b) is invalid without a court order, the adoptee was born within three hundred days after the termination of cohabitation. §32A-5-3.
Protective Supervision means the right to visit the child in the home where the child is residing, inspect the home, transport the child to court-ordered diagnostic examinations and evaluations and obtain information and records concerning the child. §32A-1-4(S) (definition added in 2005).
Reunification means either a return of the child to the parent or to the home from which the child was removed or a return to the noncustodial parent. §32A-1-4 (definition added in 2005).
Sexual abuse includes but is not limited to criminal sexual contact, incest or criminal sexual penetration, as those acts are defined by state law. §32A-4-2.
Sexual exploitation includes but is not limited to:
(1) allowing, permitting or encouraging a child to engage in prostitution;
(2) allowing, permitting, encouraging or engaging a child in obscene or pornographic photographing; or
(3) filming or depicting a child for obscene or pornographic commercial purposes, as those acts are defined by state law. §32A-4-2.
Tribal court means:
(1) a court established and operated pursuant to a code or custom of an Indian tribe; or
(2) any administrative body of an Indian tribe that is vested with judicial authority. §32A-1-4.
Tribal court order means a document issued by a tribal court that is signed by an appropriate authority, including a judge, governor or tribal council member, and that orders an action that is within the tribal court's jurisdiction. §32A-1-4.
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