As used in this chapter unless the context otherwise requires:
 1. “Abandonment of a child” means the relinquishment or surrender, without reference to any particular person, of the parental rights, duties, or privileges inherent in the parent-child relationship. Proof of abandonment must include both the intention to abandon and the acts by which the intention is evidenced. The term does not require that the relinquishment or surrender be over any particular period of time.
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Terms Used In Iowa Code 232.2

  • abuse: means :
     (1) Any nonaccidental physical injury, or injury which is at variance with the history given of it, suffered by a child as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Adult: means a person other than a child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Assessment: means the process by which the department responds to all accepted reports of alleged child abuse. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Case permanency plan: means the plan, mandated by Pub. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Child: means any person under the age of eighteen years. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Child in need of assistance: means a child who has been found to meet the grounds for adjudication pursuant to section 232. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Complaint: means an oral or written report which is made to the juvenile court by any person and alleges that a child is within the jurisdiction of the court. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Court: means the juvenile court established under section 602. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Court appointed special advocate: means a person duly certified by the child advocacy board created in section 237. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Custodian: means a stepparent or a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity to a child who has assumed responsibility for that child, a person who has accepted a release of custody pursuant to subchapter IV, or a person appointed by a court or juvenile court having jurisdiction over a child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Delinquent act: means :
     a. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Department: means the state department of human services and includes the local, county, and service area offices of the department. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Desertion: means the relinquishment or surrender for a period in excess of six months of the parental rights, duties, or privileges inherent in the parent-child relationship. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Detention: means the temporary care of a child in a physically restricting facility designed to ensure the continued custody of the child at any point between the child's initial contact with the juvenile authorities and the final disposition of the child's case. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Director: means the director of the department of human services or that person's designee. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. Source:
  • Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
  • Fictive kin: means an adult person who is not a relative of a child but who has an emotionally positive significant relationship with the child or the child's family. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Foster care: means the provision of parental nurturing, including but not limited to the furnishing of food, lodging, training, education, supervision, treatment, or other care, to a child on a full-time basis by a person, including an adult relative or fictive kin of the child, and where the child is under the placement, care, or supervision of the department, juvenile court services, or tribes with whom the department has entered into an agreement pursuant to a court order or voluntary placement, but not including a guardian of the child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Guardian: means a person who is not the parent of a child, but who has been appointed by a court having jurisdiction over the child, to have a permanent self-sustaining relationship with the child and to make important decisions which have a permanent effect on the life and development of that child and to promote the general welfare of that child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • Guardian ad litem: means a person appointed by the court to represent the interests of a child in any judicial proceeding to which the child is a party. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Informal adjustment: means the disposition of a complaint without the filing of a petition and may include but is not limited to the following:
     a. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Informal adjustment agreement: means an agreement between an intake officer, a child who is the subject of a complaint, and the child's parent, guardian, or custodian providing for the informal adjustment of the complaint. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Intake: means the preliminary screening of complaints by an intake officer to determine whether the court should take some action and if so, what action. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Intake officer: means a juvenile court officer or other officer appointed by the court to perform the intake function. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Interview: means the verbal exchange between the child protection worker and the child for the purpose of developing information necessary to protect the child. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Judge: means the judge of a juvenile court. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Juvenile: means the same as "child". See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Juvenile court officer: means a person appointed as a juvenile court officer under section 602. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • local educational agencies: means the same as defined in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, §9101, as codified in 20 U. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • official records: means official records of the court of proceedings over which the court has jurisdiction under this chapter which includes but is not limited to the following:
     a. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Parent: means a biological or adoptive mother or father of a child; or a father whose paternity has been established by operation of law due to the individual's marriage to the mother at the time of conception, birth, or at any time during the period between conception and birth of the child, by order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or by administrative order when authorized by state law. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Party: means a petitioner, a respondent, or a person who intervenes in a proceeding instituted under this chapter. See Iowa Code 252A.2
  • Peace officer: means a law enforcement officer or a person designated as a peace officer by a provision of the Code. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • person: means individual, corporation, limited liability company, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Person responsible for the care of a child: means :
     a. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Petition: means a pleading the filing of which initiates formal judicial proceedings in the juvenile court. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Physical abuse: means any nonaccidental physical injury suffered by a child as the result of the acts or omissions of the child's parent, guardian, or custodian or other person legally responsible for the child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
  • Preadoptive care: means the provision of parental nurturing on a full-time basis to a child in foster care by a person who has signed a preadoptive placement agreement with the department for the purposes of proceeding with a legal adoption of the child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Predisposition investigation: means an investigation conducted for the purpose of collecting information relevant to the court's fashioning of an appropriate disposition of a delinquency case over which the court has jurisdiction. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Probation: means a legal status which is created by a dispositional order of the court in a case where a child has been adjudicated to have committed a delinquent act, which exists for a specified period of time, and which places the child under the supervision of a juvenile court officer or other person or agency designated by the court. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
  • Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
  • Putative father: means a person who has been identified by the mother of a child as the child's potential biological father or a person who claims to be the biological father of a child and who was not married to the child's mother at the time of the child's birth, when all of the following circumstances apply:
     a. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Reasonable and prudent parent standard: means the same as defined in section 237. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Registry: means the central registry for child abuse information established in section 235A. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • relative: includes the parent of a sibling of the child if the sibling's parent's parental rights were not previously terminated in relation to the child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Residual parental rights and responsibilities: means those rights and responsibilities remaining with the parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person of the child. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Secure facility: means a physically restricting facility in which children adjudicated to have committed a delinquent act may be placed pursuant to a dispositional order of the court. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Sexual abuse: means the commission of a sex offense as defined by the penal law. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Shelter care: means the temporary care of a child in a physically unrestricting facility at any time between a child's initial contact with juvenile authorities and the final judicial disposition of the child's case. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Shelter care hearing: means a hearing at which the court determines whether it is necessary to place or retain a child in shelter care. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Sibling: means an individual who is related to another individual by blood, adoption, or affinity through a common legal or biological parent, regardless of whether a common legal or biological parent's parental rights have been terminated. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Social investigation: means an investigation conducted for the purpose of collecting information relevant to the court's fashioning of an appropriate disposition of a child in need of assistance case over which the court has jurisdiction. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Social report: means a report furnished to the court which contains the information collected during a social investigation. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • state: means the general interest held by the people in the health, safety, welfare, and protection of all children living in this state. See Iowa Code 232.90
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
  • Taking into custody: means an act which would be governed by the laws of arrest under the criminal code if the subject of the act were an adult. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Termination hearing: means a hearing held to determine whether the court should terminate a parent-child relationship. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Termination of the parent-child relationship: means the divestment by the court of the parent's and child's privileges, duties, and powers with respect to each other. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • United States: includes all the states. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Voluntary placement: means a foster care placement in which the department provides foster care services to a child according to a signed placement agreement between the department and the child's parent or guardian. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Waiver hearing: means a hearing at which the court determines whether it shall waive its jurisdiction over a child alleged to have committed a delinquent act so that the state may prosecute the child as if the child were an adult. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • year: means twelve consecutive months. See Iowa Code 4.1
 2. “Adjudicatory hearing” means a hearing to determine if the allegations of a petition are true.
 3. “Adult” means a person other than a child.
 4. “Case permanency plan” means the plan, mandated by Pub. L. No. 96-272 and Pub. L. No. 105-89, as codified in 42 U.S.C. § 622(b)(10), 671(a)(16), and 675(1),(5), which is designed to achieve placement in the most appropriate, least restrictive, and most family-like setting available and in close proximity to the parent‘s home, consistent with the best interests and special needs of the child, and which considers the placement’s proximity to the school in which the child is enrolled at the time of placement. The plan shall be developed by the department or agency involved and the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian. If the child is fourteen years of age or older, the plan shall be developed in consultation with the child and, at the option of the child, with up to two persons chosen by the child to be members of the child’s case planning team if such persons are not a foster parent of, or caseworker for, the child. The department may reject a person selected by a child to be a member of the child’s case planning team at any time if the department has good cause to believe that the person would not act in the best interests of the child. One person selected by a child to be a member of the child’s case planning team may be designated to be the child’s advisor or, if necessary, the child’s advocate with respect to the application of the reasonable and prudent parent standard. The plan shall specifically include all of the following:

 a. Plans for carrying out the voluntary placement agreement or judicial determination pursuant to which the child entered care.
 b. The type and appropriateness of the placement and services to be provided to the child.
 c. The care and services that will be provided to the child, biological parents, and foster parents.
 d. How the care and services will meet the needs of the child while in care and will facilitate the child’s return home or other permanent placement.
 e. The most recent information available regarding the child’s health and education records, including the date the records were supplied to the agency or individual who is the child’s foster care provider. If the child remains in foster care until the age of majority, the child is entitled to receive prior to discharge the most recent information available regarding the child’s health and educational records.
 f. Plans for retaining any suitable existing medical, dental, or mental health providers providing medical, dental, or mental health care to the child when the child entered foster care.
 g. (1) When a child is fourteen years of age or older, a written transition plan of services, supports, activities, and referrals to programs which, based upon an assessment of the child’s needs, would assist the child in preparing for the transition from foster care to adulthood. The transition plan and needs assessment shall be developed with a focus on the services, other support, and actions necessary to facilitate the child’s successful entry into adulthood. The transition plan shall be personalized at the direction of the child and shall be developed with the child present, honoring the goals and concerns of the child, and shall address the following areas of need for the child’s successful transition from foster care to adulthood, including but not limited to all of the following:

 (a) Education.
 (b) Employment services and other workforce support.
 (c) Health and health care coverage.
 (d) Housing and money management.
 (e) Relationships, including local opportunities to have a mentor.
 (f) If the needs assessment indicates the child is reasonably likely to need or be eligible for services or other support from the adult service system upon reaching age eighteen, the transition plan shall provide for the child’s application for adult services.
 (2) The transition plan shall be considered a working document and shall be reviewed and updated during a periodic case review, which shall occur at a minimum of once every six months. The transition plan shall also be reviewed and updated during the ninety calendar-day period preceding the child’s eighteenth birthday and during the ninety calendar-day period immediately preceding the date the child is expected to exit foster care, if the child remains in foster care after the child’s eighteenth birthday. The transition plan may be reviewed and updated more frequently.
 (3) The transition plan shall be developed and reviewed by the department in collaboration with a child-centered transition team. The transition team shall be comprised of the child’s caseworker and persons selected by the child, persons who have knowledge of services available to the child, and any person who may reasonably be expected to be a service provider for the child when the child becomes an adult or to become responsible for the costs of services at that time. If the child is reasonably likely to need or be eligible for adult services, the transition team membership shall include representatives from the adult services system. The membership of the transition team and the meeting dates for the team shall be documented in the transition plan.
 (4) The final transition plan shall specifically identify how the need for housing will be addressed.
 (5) If the child is interested in pursuing higher education, the transition plan shall provide for the child’s participation in the college student aid commission’s program of assistance in applying for federal and state aid under section 261.2.
 (6) If the needs assessment indicates the child is reasonably likely to need or be eligible for services or other support from the adult service system upon reaching age eighteen, the transition plan shall be reviewed and approved by the transition committee for the area in which the child resides, in accordance with section 235.7, before the child reaches age seventeen and one-half. The transition committee’s review and approval shall be indicated in the case permanency plan.
 (7) The transition plan shall include a provision for the department or a designee of the department on or before the date the child reaches age eighteen, unless the child has been placed in foster care for less than thirty days, to provide to the child written verification of the child’s foster care status, and a certified copy of the child’s birth certificate, social security card, and driver’s license or government-issued nonoperator’s identification card. The fee for the certified copy of the child’s birth certificate that is otherwise chargeable under section 144.13A, 144.46, or 331.605 shall be waived by the state or county registrar.
 h. The actions expected of the parent, guardian, or custodian in order for the department or agency to recommend that the court terminate a dispositional order for the child’s out-of-home placement and for the department or agency to end its involvement with the child and the child’s family.
 i. If reasonable efforts to place a child for adoption or with a guardian are made concurrently with reasonable efforts as defined in section 232.102, the concurrent goals and timelines may be identified. Concurrent case permanency plan goals for reunification, and for adoption or for other permanent out-of-home placement of a child shall not be considered inconsistent in that the goals reflect divergent possible outcomes for a child in an out-of-home placement.
 j. A provision that a designee of the department or other person responsible for placement of a child out-of-state shall visit the child at least once every six months.
 k. If it has been determined that the child cannot return to the child’s home, documentation of the steps taken to make and finalize an adoption or other permanent placement.
 l. If it is part of the child’s records or it is otherwise known that the child has behaved in a manner that threatened the safety of another person, has committed a violent act causing bodily injury to another person, or has been a victim or perpetrator of sexual abuse, that information shall be addressed in the plan and shall be provided to the child’s parent, guardian, or foster parent or other person with custody of the child. The information shall be provided whether the child’s placement is voluntary or made pursuant to a court determination. The information shall be provided at the time it is learned by the department or agency developing the plan and, if possible, at the time of the child’s placement. The information shall only be withheld if ordered by the court or it is determined by the department or agency developing the plan that providing the information would be detrimental to the child or to the family with whom the child is living. In determining whether providing the information would be detrimental, the court, department, or agency shall consider any history of abuse within the child’s family or toward the child.
 m. The provisions involving sibling visitation or interaction required under section 232.108.
 n. Documentation of the educational stability of the child while in foster care. The documentation shall include but is not limited to all of the following:

 (1) Evidence there was an evaluation of the appropriateness of the child’s educational setting while in placement and of the setting’s proximity to the educational setting in which the child was enrolled at the time of placement.
 (2) An assurance either that the department coordinated with appropriate local educational agencies to identify how the child could remain in the educational setting in which the child was enrolled at the time of placement or, if it was determined it was not in the child’s best interest to remain in that setting, that the affected educational agencies would immediately and appropriately enroll the child in another educational setting during the child’s placement and ensure that the child’s educational records were provided for use in the new educational setting. For the purposes of this subparagraph, “local educational agencies” means the same as defined in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, §9101, as codified in 20 U.S.C. § 7801(26).
 o. Any issues relating to the application of the reasonable and prudent parent standard and the child’s participation in age or developmentally appropriate activities while in foster care.
 5. “Child” means a person under eighteen years of age.
 6. “Child in need of assistance” means a child who has been found to meet the grounds for adjudication pursuant to section 232.96A.
 7. “Chronic runaway” means a child who is reported to law enforcement as a runaway more than once in any thirty-day period or three or more times in any year.
 8. “Complaint” means an oral or written report which is made to the juvenile court by any person and alleges that a child is within the jurisdiction of the court.
 9. “Court” means the juvenile court established under section 602.7101.
 10. “Court appointed special advocate” means a person duly certified by the child advocacy board created in section 237.16 for participation in the court appointed special advocate program and appointed by the court to carry out duties pursuant to section 237.24.
 11. “Criminal or juvenile justice agency” means any agency which has as its primary responsibility the enforcement of the state’s criminal laws or of local ordinances made pursuant to state law.
 12. a. “Custodian” means a stepparent or a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity to a child who has assumed responsibility for that child, a person who has accepted a release of custody pursuant to subchapter IV, or a person appointed by a court or juvenile court having jurisdiction over a child.

 b. The rights and duties of a custodian with respect to a child are as follows:

 (1) To maintain or transfer to another the physical possession of that child.
 (2) To protect, train, and discipline that child.
 (3) To provide food, clothing, housing, and medical care for that child.
 (4) To consent to emergency medical care, including surgery.
 (5) To sign a release of medical information to a health professional.
 c. All rights and duties of a custodian shall be subject to any residual rights and duties remaining in a parent or guardian.
 13. “Delinquent act” means:

 a. The violation of any state law or local ordinance which would constitute a public offense if committed by an adult except any offense which by law is exempted from the jurisdiction of this chapter.
 b. The violation of a federal law or a law of another state which violation constitutes a criminal offense if the case involving that act has been referred to the juvenile court.
 c. The violation of section 123.47 which is committed by a child.
 d. The violation of sections 716.7 and 716.8, which is committed by a child.
 e. The violation of section 724.4E which is committed by a child.
 14. “Department” means the department of human services and includes the local, county, and service area officers of the department.
 15. “Desertion” means the relinquishment or surrender for a period in excess of six months of the parental rights, duties, or privileges inherent in the parent-child relationship. Proof of desertion need not include the intention to desert, but is evidenced by the lack of attempted contact with the child or by only incidental contact with the child.
 16. “Detention” means the temporary care of a child in a physically restricting facility designed to ensure the continued custody of the child at any point between the child’s initial contact with the juvenile authorities and the final disposition of the child’s case.
 17. “Detention hearing” means a hearing at which the court determines whether it is necessary to place or retain a child in detention.
 18. “Director” means the director of the department of human services or that person’s designee.
 19. “Dismissal of complaint” means the termination of all proceedings against a child.
 20. “Dispositional hearing” means a hearing held after an adjudication to determine what dispositional order should be made.
 21. “Family in need of assistance” means a family in which there has been a breakdown in the relationship between a child and the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian.
 22. “Fictive kin” means an adult person who is not a relative of a child but who has an emotionally positive significant relationship with the child or the child’s family.
 23. “Foster care” means the provision of parental nurturing, including but not limited to the furnishing of food, lodging, training, education, supervision, treatment, or other care, to a child on a full-time basis by a person, including an adult relative or fictive kin of the child, and where the child is under the placement, care, or supervision of the department, juvenile court services, or tribes with whom the department has entered into an agreement pursuant to a court order or voluntary placement, but not including a guardian of the child.
 24. a. “Guardian” means a person who is not the parent of a child, but who has been appointed by a court having jurisdiction over the child, to have a permanent self-sustaining relationship with the child and to make important decisions which have a permanent effect on the life and development of that child and to promote the general welfare of that child. A guardian may be a court. “Guardian” does not mean conservator, as defined in section 633.3, although a person who is appointed to be a guardian may also be appointed to be a conservator.

 b. Unless otherwise enlarged or circumscribed by a court or juvenile court having jurisdiction over the child or by operation of law, the rights and duties of a guardian with respect to a child shall be as follows:

 (1) To consent to marriage, enlistment in the armed forces of the United States, or medical, psychiatric, or surgical treatment.
 (2) To serve as guardian ad litem, unless the interests of the guardian conflict with the interests of the child or unless another person has been appointed guardian ad litem.
 (3) To serve as custodian, unless another person has been appointed custodian.
 (4) To make periodic visitations if the guardian does not have physical possession or custody of the child.
 (5) To consent to adoption and to make any other decision that the parents could have made when the parent-child relationship existed.
 (6) To make other decisions involving protection, education, and care and control of the child.
 25. a. “Guardian ad litem” means a person appointed by the court to represent the interests of a child in any judicial proceeding to which the child is a party.

 b. Unless otherwise enlarged or circumscribed after a finding of good cause by a court or juvenile court having jurisdiction over the child or by operation of law, the duties of a guardian ad litem with respect to a child shall include the following:

 (1) Conducting in-person interviews with the child, if the child’s age is appropriate for the interview, and interviewing each parent, guardian, or other person having custody of the child, if authorized by counsel.
 (2) Conducting interviews with the child, if the child’s age is appropriate for the interview, prior to any court-ordered hearing.
 (3) Visiting the home, residence, or both home and residence of the child and any prospective home or residence of the child, including each time placement is changed.
 (4) Interviewing any person providing medical, mental health, social, educational, or other services to the child, before any hearing referred to in subparagraph (2).
 (5) Obtaining firsthand knowledge, if possible, of the facts, circumstances, and parties involved in the matter in which the person is appointed guardian ad litem.
 (6) Attending any hearings in the matter in which the person is appointed as the guardian ad litem.
 (7) If the child is required to have a transition plan developed in accordance with the child’s case permanency plan and subject to review and approval of a transition committee under section 235.7, assisting the transition committee in development of the transition plan.
 (8) Submitting a written report to the juvenile court and to each of the parties detailing compliance with this subsection. If the guardian ad litem is also appointed to represent the child as an attorney, the written report shall contain an assessment of this dual role and whether there is a need for the court to appoint a separate guardian ad litem. A written report shall be submitted for each court hearing unless otherwise ordered by the court.
 (9) Providing a sibling of a child not placed with the child with the reasons why the child and the sibling have not been placed together and an explanation of the efforts being made to facilitate placement together or why efforts to place the child and sibling together are not appropriate. This subparagraph shall not apply if the sibling’s age or mental state makes such explanations inappropriate.
 c. The order appointing the guardian ad litem shall grant authorization to the guardian ad litem to interview any relevant person and inspect and copy any records relevant to the proceedings, if not prohibited by federal law. The order shall specify that the guardian ad litem may interview any person providing medical, mental health, social, educational, or other services to the child, may attend any departmental staff meeting, case conference, or meeting with medical or mental health providers, service providers, organizations, or educational institutions regarding the child, if deemed necessary by the guardian ad litem, and may inspect and copy any records relevant to the proceedings.
 d. If authorized by the court, a guardian ad litem may continue a relationship with and provide advice to a child for a period of time beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday.
 e. In determining the best interests of the child, rather than relying solely on a guardian ad litem’s life experiences or instinct, a guardian ad litem shall, with the primary goal of achieving permanency for the child by preserving the child’s family or reunifying the child with the child’s family, do all of the following:

 (1) Determine the child’s circumstances through a full, independent, and efficient investigation, including the information gathered from the child’s medical, mental health, and education professionals, social workers, other relevant experts, and other sources obtained in accordance with this subsection.
 (2) Assess the child and the totality of the child’s circumstances at the time of each placement determination, including any potential trauma to the child that may be caused by any recommended action.
 (3) Examine all options available to the child in light of the permanency plans.
 (4) Incorporate a child’s expressed wishes in recommendations and reports.
 26. “Health practitioner” means a licensed physician or surgeon, osteopathic physician or surgeon, dentist, optometrist, podiatric physician, or chiropractor, a resident or intern of any such profession, and any registered nurse or licensed practical nurse.
 27. “Informal adjustment” means the disposition of a complaint without the filing of a petition and may include but is not limited to the following:

 a. Placement of the child on nonjudicial probation.
 b. Provision of intake services.
 c. Referral of the child to a public or private agency other than the court for services.
 28. “Informal adjustment agreement” means an agreement between an intake officer, a child who is the subject of a complaint, and the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian providing for the informal adjustment of the complaint.
 29. “Intake” means the preliminary screening of complaints by an intake officer to determine whether the court should take some action and if so, what action.
 30. “Intake officer” means a juvenile court officer or other officer appointed by the court to perform the intake function.
 31. “Judge” means the judge of a juvenile court.
 32. “Juvenile” means the same as “child”. However, in the interstate compact for juveniles, section 232.173, “juvenile” means a person defined as a juvenile in the compact.
 33. “Juvenile court officer” means a person appointed as a juvenile court officer under section 602.7202 and a chief juvenile court officer appointed under section 602.1217.
 34. “Juvenile court social records” or “social records” means all records made with respect to a child in connection with proceedings over which the court has jurisdiction under this chapter other than official records and includes but is not limited to the records made and compiled by intake officers, predisposition reports, and reports of physical and mental examinations.
 35. “Juvenile detention home” means a physically restricting facility used only for the detention of children.
 36. “Juvenile diversion program” means an organized effort to coordinate services for a child who is alleged to have committed a delinquent act, when the organized effort results in the dismissal of a complaint alleging the commission of the delinquent act or results in informally proceeding without a complaint being filed against the child, and which does not result in an informal adjustment agreement involving juvenile court services or the filing of a delinquency petition.
 37. “Juvenile parole officer” means a person representing an agency which retains jurisdiction over the case of a child adjudicated to have committed a delinquent act, placed in a secure facility and subsequently released, who supervises the activities of the child until the case is dismissed.
 38. “Juvenile shelter care home” means a physically unrestricting facility used only for the shelter care of children.
 39. “Mental injury” means a nonorganic injury to a child’s intellectual or psychological capacity as evidenced by an observable and substantial impairment in the child’s ability to function within the child’s normal range of performance and behavior, considering the child’s cultural origin.
 40. “Neglect” means the failure on the part of a person responsible for the care of a child to provide for adequate food, shelter, clothing, medical or mental health treatment, supervision, or other care necessary for the child’s health and welfare when financially able to do so or when offered financial or other reasonable means to do so.
 41. “Nonjudicial probation” means the informal adjustment of a complaint which involves the supervision of the child who is the subject of the complaint by an intake officer or juvenile court officer for a period during which the child may be required to comply with specified conditions concerning the child’s conduct and activities.
 42. “Nonsecure facility” means a physically unrestricting facility in which children may be placed pursuant to a dispositional order of the court made in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
 43. “Official juvenile court records” or “official records” means official records of the court of proceedings over which the court has jurisdiction under this chapter which includes but is not limited to the following:

 a. The docket of the court and entries therein.
 b. Complaints, petitions, other pleadings, motions, and applications filed with a court.
 c. Any summons, notice, subpoena, or other process and proofs of publication.
 d. Transcripts of proceedings before the court.
 e. Findings, judgments, decrees, and orders of the court.
 44. “Parent” means a biological or adoptive mother or father of a child; or a father whose paternity has been established by operation of law due to the individual’s marriage to the mother at the time of conception, birth, or at any time during the period between conception and birth of the child, by order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or by administrative order when authorized by state law. “Parent” does not include a mother or father whose parental rights have been terminated.
 45. “Peace officer” means a law enforcement officer or a person designated as a peace officer by a provision of the Code.
 46. “Petition” means a pleading the filing of which initiates formal judicial proceedings in the juvenile court.
 47. “Physical abuse” means any nonaccidental physical injury suffered by a child as the result of the acts or omissions of the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian or other person legally responsible for the child.
 48. “Preadoptive care” means the provision of parental nurturing on a full-time basis to a child in foster care by a person who has signed a preadoptive placement agreement with the department for the purposes of proceeding with a legal adoption of the child. Parental nurturing includes but is not limited to furnishing of food, lodging, training, education, treatment, and other care.
 49. “Predisposition investigation” means an investigation conducted for the purpose of collecting information relevant to the court’s fashioning of an appropriate disposition of a delinquency case over which the court has jurisdiction.
 50. “Predisposition report” is a report furnished to the court which contains the information collected during a predisposition investigation.
 51. “Probation” means a legal status which is created by a dispositional order of the court in a case where a child has been adjudicated to have committed a delinquent act, which exists for a specified period of time, and which places the child under the supervision of a juvenile court officer or other person or agency designated by the court. The probation order may require a child to comply with specified conditions imposed by the court concerning conduct and activities, subject to being returned to the court for violation of those conditions.
 52. “Putative father” means a person who has been identified by the mother of a child as the child’s potential biological father or a person who claims to be the biological father of a child and who was not married to the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth, when all of the following circumstances apply:

 a. Biological testing has not excluded the person as the child’s biological father.
 b. No legal father has been established, biological testing excludes the previously identified father, or previous paternity has otherwise been disestablished.
 c. Information sufficient to identify and find the person has been provided to the county attorney by the mother, the person, or a party to proceedings under this chapter.
 d. The person has not been found by a court to be uncooperative with genetic testing.
 53. “Reasonable and prudent parent standard” means the same as defined in section 237.1.
 54. “Registry” means the central registry for child abuse information as established under chapter 235A.
 55. “Relative” means an individual related to a child within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, by marriage, or through adoption. For purposes of subchapters III and IV, “relative” includes the parent of a sibling of the child if the sibling’s parent’s parental rights were not previously terminated in relation to the child.
 56. “Residual parental rights and responsibilities” means those rights and responsibilities remaining with the parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person of the child. These include but are not limited to the right of visitation, the right to consent to adoption, and the responsibility for support.
 57. “Secure facility” means a physically restricting facility in which children adjudicated to have committed a delinquent act may be placed pursuant to a dispositional order of the court.
 58. “Sexual abuse” means the commission of a sex offense as defined by the penal law.
 59. “Shelter care” means the temporary care of a child in a physically unrestricting facility at any time between a child’s initial contact with juvenile authorities and the final judicial disposition of the child’s case.
 60. “Shelter care hearing” means a hearing at which the court determines whether it is necessary to place or retain a child in shelter care.
 61. “Sibling” means an individual who is related to another individual by blood, adoption, or affinity through a common legal or biological parent, regardless of whether a common legal or biological parent’s parental rights have been terminated.
 62. “Social investigation” means an investigation conducted for the purpose of collecting information relevant to the court’s fashioning of an appropriate disposition of a child in need of assistance case over which the court has jurisdiction.
 63. “Social report” means a report furnished to the court which contains the information collected during a social investigation.
 64. “Taking into custody” means an act which would be governed by the laws of arrest under the criminal code if the subject of the act were an adult. The taking into custody of a child is subject to all constitutional and statutory protections which are afforded an adult upon arrest.
 65. “Termination hearing” means a hearing held to determine whether the court should terminate a parent-child relationship.
 66. “Termination of the parent-child relationship” means the divestment by the court of the parent’s and child’s privileges, duties, and powers with respect to each other.
 67. “Voluntary placement” means a foster care placement in which the department provides foster care services to a child according to a signed placement agreement between the department and the child’s parent or guardian.
 68. “Waiver hearing” means a hearing at which the court determines whether it shall waive its jurisdiction over a child alleged to have committed a delinquent act so that the state may prosecute the child as if the child were an adult.
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