A. What is Reported: Defining Child Abuse and Neglect


		A. What is Reported Defining Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse or neglect includes acts that threaten the health or welfare of a child. This includes:

Non-accidental skin bruising, bleeding, malnutrition, failure to thrive, burns, fractures of any bone, subdural hematoma, soft tissue swelling, or death;
Any case in which a child is subject to unlawful sexual behavior;
The child’s parent, guardian, or custodian failing to provide adequate food, clothing, education, shelter, medical care, or supervision that a prudent parent would take;
The child being subject to emotional abuse that substantially impairs or places at risk the child’s intellectual or psychological functioning or development;
When the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian has abandoned the child or allowed another to mistreat or abuse the child;
When the child’s environment is injurious;
When the child is homeless, without proper care, or not domiciled with the parent, guardian, or legal custodian through no fault of such parent, guardian or legal custodian;
When the child has run away from home or is otherwise beyond the control of the parent, guardian, or legal custodian;
When a parent, guardian, or legal custodian has subjected another child or children to an identifiable pattern of habitual abuse, and that parent, guardian, or legal custodian has been the respondent in another proceeding under the Children’s Code, or a court has determined that such abuse or neglect has caused the death of another child; and the pattern of abuse poses a current threat to a child;
When the parent interferes with court-ordered medical treatment of a child;
Manufacture or attempted manufacture of an illegal drug in the presence of a child, or on the premises where a child is found, or where a child resides; or
Where a child tests positive at birth for either a schedule I or a schedule II controlled substance, unless the child tests positive for a schedule II controlled substance as a result of the mother’s lawful intake of such substances as prescribed.

C.R.S. § 19-3-103(1)(b)
People in the Interest of M.A.L., 37, Colo. App. 307, 592 P.2d 415 (1976)

Reasonable discipline, spiritual treatment and accepted work-related practices of agricultural communities are specifically excluded from the definition of child abuse or neglect, as well as police efforts to lawfully bring juveniles into custody.

C.R.S. § 19-1-103(67)
C.R.S. § 19-3-308

The alleged perpetrator may be a family member, a friend, a stranger, or an institution. “Intrafamilial” perpetrators include parents, guardians, legal custodians, spousal equivalents, stepparents, relatives and anyone regularly in the child’s home who exercises authority over or cares for the child. It does not include unrelated paid caretakers.