2023 Tennessee Code › Title 36 - DOMESTIC RELATIONS (§§ 36-1-101 — 36-8-104) › Chapter 7 - UNIFORM DEPLOYED PARENTS CUSTODY AND VISITATION ACT (§§ 36-7-101 — 36-7-503) › Section 36-7-102 - Chapter definitions

In this chapter:
(1)
"Adult" means an individual who has attained eighteen (18) years of age or is an emancipated minor;
(2)
"Caretaking authority" means the right to live with and care for a child on a day-to-day basis. "Caretaking authority" includes physical custody, parenting time, right to access, and visitation;
(3)
"Child" means:
(A)
An unemancipated individual who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age; or
(B)
An adult son or daughter by birth or adoption, or under law of this state other than this chapter, who is the subject of a court order concerning custodial responsibility;
(4)
"Court" means a tribunal, including an administrative agency, authorized under law of this state other than this chapter to make, enforce, or modify a decision regarding custodial responsibility;
(5)
"Custodial responsibility" includes all powers and duties relating to caretaking authority and decision-making authority for a child. "Custodial responsibility" includes physical custody, legal custody, parenting time, right to access, visitation, and authority to grant limited contact with a child;
(6)
(A)
"Decision-making authority" means the power to make important decisions regarding a child, including decisions regarding the child's education, religious training, health care, extracurricular activities, and travel;
(B)
"Decision-making authority" does not include the power to make decisions that necessarily accompany a grant of caretaking authority;
(7)
"Deploying parent" means a service member who is deployed or has been notified of impending deployment and is:
(A)
A parent of a child under law of this state other than this chapter; or
(B)
An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than this chapter;
(8)
"Deployment" means the movement or mobilization of a service member for more than thirty (30) days pursuant to uniformed service orders that:
(A)
Are designated as unaccompanied;
(B)
Do not authorize dependent travel; or
(C)
Otherwise do not permit the movement of family members to the location to which the service member is deployed;
(9)
"Family member" means a sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, stepparent, or grandparent of a child or an individual recognized to be in a familial relationship with a child under law of this state other than this chapter;
(10)
"Limited contact" means the authority of a nonparent to visit a child for a limited time. "Limited contact" includes authority to take the child to a place other than the residence of the child;
(11)
"Nonparent" means an individual other than a deploying parent or other parent;
(12)
"Other parent" means an individual who, in common with a deploying parent, is:
(A)
A parent of a child under law of this state other than this chapter; or
(B)
An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than this chapter;
(13)
"Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form;
(14)
"Return from deployment" means the conclusion of a service member's deployment as specified in uniformed service orders;
(15)
"Service member" means a member of a uniformed service;
(16)
"Sign" means with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
(A)
To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(B)
To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process;
(17)
"State" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; and
(18)
"Uniformed service" means:
(A)
Active and reserve components of the army, navy, air force, marine corps, or coast guard of the United States;
(B)
The United States merchant marine;
(C)
The commissioned corps of the United States public health service;
(D)
The commissioned corps of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration of the United States; or
(E)
The national guard of a state.
Added by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 798,s 1, eff. 7/1/2014.