AN ACT Relating to child abuse; and amending RCW 26.44.020.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. Section 2, chapter 13, Laws of 1965 as last amended by section 2, chapter 97, Laws of 1984 and RCW 26.44.020 are each amended to read as follows:

For the purpose of and as used in this chapter:

(1) "Court" means the superior court of the state of Washington, juvenile department.

(2) "Law enforcement agency" means the police department, the prosecuting attorney, the state patrol, the director of public safety, or the office of the sheriff.

(3) "Practitioner of the healing arts" or "practitioner" means a person licensed by this state to practice podiatry, optometry, chiropractic, nursing, dentistry, osteopathy and surgery, or medicine and surgery. The term "practitioner" shall include a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That a person who is being furnished Christian Science treatment by a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner shall not be considered, for that reason alone, a neglected person for the purposes of this chapter.

(4) "Institution" means a private or public hospital or any other facility providing medical diagnosis, treatment or care.

(5) "Department" means the state department of social and health services.

(6) "Child" or "children" means any person under the age of eighteen years of age.

(7) "Professional school personnel" shall include, but not be limited to, teachers, counselors, administrators, child care facility personnel, and school nurses.

(8) "Social worker" shall mean anyone engaged in a professional capacity during the regular course of employment in encouraging or promoting the health, welfare, support or education of children, or providing social services to adults or families, whether in an individual capacity, or as an employee or agent of any public or private organization or institution.

(9) "Psychologist" shall mean any person licensed to practice psychology under chapter 18.83 RCW, whether acting in an individual capacity or as an employee or agent of any public or private organization or institution.

(10) "Pharmacist" shall mean any registered pharmacist under the provisions of chapter 18.64 RCW, whether acting in an individual capacity or as an employee or agent of any public or private organization or institution.

(11) "Clergy" shall mean any regularly licensed or ordained minister, priest or rabbi of any church or religious denomination, whether acting in an individual capacity or as an employee or agent of any public or private organization or institution.

(12) (("Child abuse or neglect" shall mean the injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child by any person under circumstances which indicate that the child's health, welfare, and safety is harmed thereby. An abused child is a child who has been subjected to child abuse or neglect as defined herein: PROVIDED, That this subsection shall not be construed to authorize interference with child-raising practices, including reasonable parental discipline, which are not proved to be injurious to the child's health, welfare, and safety.

~~(13)~~)) "Child protective services section" shall mean the child protective services section of the department.

((~~(14)~~)) (13) "Adult dependent persons not able to provide for their own protection through the criminal justice system" shall be defined as those persons over the age of eighteen years who have been found legally incompetent pursuant to chapter 11.88 RCW or found disabled to such a degree pursuant to said chapter, that such protection is indicated: PROVIDED, That no persons reporting injury, abuse, or neglect to an adult dependent person as defined herein shall suffer negative consequences if such a judicial determination of incompetency or disability has not taken place and the person reporting believes in good faith that the adult dependent person has been found legally incompetent pursuant to chapter 11.88 RCW.

((~~(15)~~)) (14) "Sexual exploitation" includes: (a) Allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child to engage in prostitution by any person; or (b) allowing, permitting, encouraging, or engaging in the obscene or pornographic photographing, filming, or depicting of a child for commercial purposes as those acts are defined by state law by any person.

(((16) "Negligent treatment or maltreatment" means an act or omission which evidences a serious disregard of consequences of such magnitude as to constitute a clear and present danger to the child's health, welfare, and safety.))

(15) "Abused child" means a child, less than eighteen years of age, whose parent or other person legally responsible for his or her care:

(a) Inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon such child physical injury by other than accidental means that causes or creates a substantial risk of death, or serious or protracted disfigurement, or protracted impairment of physical health, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ;

(b) Creates or allows to be created a substantial risk of physical injury to such child by other than accidental means that would be likely to cause death or serious or protracted disfigurement, or protracted impairment of physical health, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ;

(d) Wrongfully deprives a child of his or her rights to property, home, or family relationships.

(16) "Neglected or maltreated child" means a child, less than eighteen years of age;

(a) Whose physical condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of his or her parent or other person legally responsible for his or her care to exercise a minimum degree of care:

(i) In supplying the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or education as required by 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

(ii) 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 the parent or other person legally responsible loses self-control of his or her actions, or by any other acts of a similarly serious nature requiring the aid of the court, however, if the parent or other person legally responsible is voluntarily and regularly participating in a rehabilitative program, evidence that the parent or other person legally responsible has repeatedly misused a drug or drugs or alcoholic beverages to the extent that he or she loses self-control of his or her actions shall not alone 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 that the child is in imminent physical danger of becoming impaired;

(b) Who has been abandoned by his or her parents or other person legally responsible for his or her care; or