2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 42 - Child Safety, Well-being, and Protection Act (§§ 1101 — 1206) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§ 1101) › § 1101 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning expressed herein below:
(a) Abandonment.— Shall mean willful dereliction or being remiss in the responsibilities that a father, mother, or any other person responsible for a minor has, taking into account said minor’s age and need for adult care. The intention to abandon can be evidenced by, but is not limited to:
(1) a lack of communication with the minor for a period of at least three (3) months
(2) a lack of participation in any plan or program designed to reunify the minor with his/her father, mother, or other person responsible for his/her well-being.
(3) failure to respond to notices of hearings in child protective proceedings, or
(4) when the minor is found in circumstances that make it impossible to ascertain the identity of the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor’s well-being; or when the identity is known, but the whereabouts of the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor remain unknown in spite of efforts to locate him/her; and when the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor’s well-being fails to claim the latter within thirty (30) days after he/she is found.
(b) Sexual abuse.— Shall mean engaging in sexual conduct in the presence of a minor and/or using the minor, voluntarily or otherwise, to engage in sexual conduct aimed at satisfying lasciviousness, or any other act that, if criminally prosecuted, would constitute any of the following crimes: sexual assault; lewd and lascivious acts; human trafficking for the sex trade; indecent exposure; indecent sexual proposal; possession and distribution of child pornography; use of a minor for child pornography; or delivering, transporting, selling, distributing, publishing, exhibiting, or possessing obscene material; and obscene shows, as these have been classified in the Penal Code of Puerto Rico.
(c) Protection cases.— Shall mean situations of child abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect, as these terms are defined herein and supported by an investigation.
(d) Licensed centers.— Shall mean those establishments, regardless of how they are called, engaged in the care of twelve (12) or more children, twenty-four (24) hours a day, whether or not for profit.
(e) Obscene behavior.— Shall mean any physical activity of the human body, whether carried out alone or with other persons, including, but not limited to singing, talking, dancing, acting, pretending, or pantomiming which, as a whole, is considered by the average person and according to contemporary community standards to appeal to lewd interests, which represents or depicts any kind of sexual conduct in an overtly offensive manner, and which lacks any serious literary, artistic, political, religious, scientific, or educational value.
(f) Shared responsibility.— Shall mean the concurrence of doers and deeds aimed at guaranteeing the exercise of children’s rights. Families, society, and the State have a shared responsibility to look after them and their safety, care, and protection.
Shared responsibility and concurrence apply to the relationship established among all sectors and institutions of the State.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, public or private institutions that must render social services may not invoke the principle of shared responsibility to deny attention warranted by the fundamental rights of children and youths.
(g) Emergency custody.— Shall mean that which is exercised by someone other than the father or mother whenever the situation of a minor would constitute an imminent danger to his/her safety; health; physical, mental, or emotional integrity; and/or social well-being if no immediate action were taken with regards to his/her custody.
(h) Custody.— Shall mean, besides that which the parents are granted by virtue of parental rights, that which is granted by a competent court.
(i) Temporary custody.— Shall mean that which is granted by a judge in termination of custody proceedings, or when a protection order is issued against the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor, for a specified period and subject to review, until the conclusion of the proceedings.
(j) Physical custody.— Shall mean having a minor under one’s care and protection without this implying the exercise of rights and obligations inherent to parental rights.
(k) Bodily harm.— Shall mean any non-accidental trauma, injury, or condition, including inadequate nourishment that could result, if left unattended, in death, disfigurement, illness, or temporary or permanent disability of any part or function of the body, including inadequate nourishment. Moreover, the trauma, injury, or condition may be the result of a single episode or several episodes.
(l) Mental or emotional injury.— Shall mean the impairment of the intellectual or emotional ability of a minor, taking into account what is considered normal for his/her age or cultural environment. Furthermore, emotional injury is deemed to exist when there is evidence that the minor recurrently manifests or exhibits behaviors such as fear; feelings of abandonment or hopelessness; frustration and failure; anxiety; insecurity; isolation; aggressive or regressive behavior, or any other similar behavior that demonstrates his/her emotional vulnerability.
(m) Monitoring duty of the state.— Shall mean the duty of the State to ensure that all natural and juridical persons that shelter or care for children and youths comply with the standards that the same has imposed.
The Department of the Family, as the governing, coordinating, and enforcing entity of the Family Well-being System, may recognize, grant, suspend, or cancel operating licenses for system institutions that render protection and care services to minors or families, as well as those institutions that develop an adoption program.
(n) Department.— Shall mean the Department of the Family of the Government of Puerto Rico.
(o) Diversion.— Shall mean a program to reeducate or retrain first-time offenders convicted of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(p) Emergency.— Shall mean any situation that imminently endangers the minor’s safety, health, physical, mental, or emotional integrity; and social well-being if no immediate action is taken with regards to his/her custody.
(q) Reasonable efforts.— Shall mean all those actions, activities, or services offered either at home or elsewhere to support, develop, and foster a valuable relationship between the father, mother, or other person responsible for a minor and the minors themselves, in coordination with public and private entities, so as to guarantee such minor’s safety and well-being. These efforts seek to prevent the minors” removal from their families, to reunify families, and to find a permanent placement alternative whenever reunifying the family is not an option.
(r) Family.— Shall mean two or more persons bound either legally or by blood, family, or kinship who share social, financial, and affectional responsibilities whether or not they live under the same roof.
(s) Foster home.— Shall mean a place that temporarily provides substitute care for no more than six (6) children from other homes or families, twenty-four hours a day. It shall be a home that has undergone investigation, certification, or licensing and is under the supervision of the Department. For purposes of the Spanish version of this chapter, “hogar de crianza” shall be renamed “hogares temporeros”.
(t) Unsubstantiated report.— Shall mean information offered pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and which, when investigated, is found to be lacking grounds to support allegations of abuse or neglect, or which is determined to be false.
(u) Report to refer situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect or Referral.— Shall mean oral or written information provided by a person who is required to report, or by any other person through the Abuse Hotline, the Puerto Rico Police Department, or the local office of the Department, describing situations of alleged suspicion or existence of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect.
(v) Abuse.— Shall mean any intentional act or omission by the father, mother, or other person responsible for a minor of such nature that it causes or puts a minor at risk of suffering injury or harm to his/her health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity, including sexual abuse as defined in this chapter. Abuse shall also mean to engage in obscene behavior and/or use the minor to carry out obscene acts; to allow another person to cause or to put the minor at risk of suffering injury or harm to his/her health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity; to willfully abandon a minor; the exploitation of a minor by his/her father, mother, or any other person responsible for his/her well-being; to allow another person to exploit a minor by forcing or allowing him/her to perform any act, including but not limited to engaging in obscene acts for profit or in order to receive any other benefit; or to behave in any way that, if criminally prosecuted, would constitute a crime against the health or physical, mental, or emotional integrity of the minor, including sexual abuse. Minors will also be considered victims of abuse if their father, mother, or person responsible for them has engaged in any of the aforesaid behaviors or in acts that constitute domestic violence in the presence of minors as defined in §§ 601 et seq. of this title.
(w) Institutional abuse.— Shall mean any act or omission by the operator of a foster home or by an employee or official of a public or private institution providing care services for twenty-four (24) hours a day or part thereof, or having control over or custody of a minor to provide care, education, treatment, or detention, that causes harm or endangers the health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity of such minor, including, but not limited to sexual abuse; to engage in obscene behavior and/or use the minor to perform lewd acts, whether it is known, suspected, or occurring as a result of the prevailing policies, practices, and conditions of the institution in question; to exploit a minor or allow someone else to do so, including, but not limited to using such minor to perform obscene acts, either for profit or to receive any other benefit.
(x) Best interests of the child.— Shall mean the balance of different factors that may affect the safety; health; or physical, mental, emotional, educational, and social well-being, or any other aimed at achieving the optimum development of the minor.
(y) Minor.— Shall mean any person who is not yet eighteen (18) years of age.
(z) Neglect.— Shall mean the type of abuse that consists of failing to perform the duties or to exercise the ability to provide adequate nourishment, clothing, shelter, education, or health care to a minor; failing to exercise supervision; failing to visit the minor or maintain contact or frequent communication with him/her. Likewise, a minor shall be deemed to be a victim of neglect if the father, mother, or other person responsible for him/her has engaged in the behavior described in subsections (3) and (4) of § 634a of Title 31.
(aa) Institutional neglect.— Shall mean actual or suspected neglect by the operator of a foster home, any employee or official of a private or public institution that provides care during a twenty-four (24)-hour period or part thereof, or anyone who has control over or custody of a minor in order to provide care, education, treatment or detention, and causes harm to such minor or places him/her at risk of harm to his/her health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity, including sexual abuse, and which situation is known, suspected, or occurring as a result of the prevailing policies, practices, and conditions of the institution in question.
(bb) Protection order.— Shall mean any order issued in writing under the seal of a court, dictating the measures to be taken by a child abuser to refrain from engaging in or performing certain actions or behaviors that constitute abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(cc) Person responsible for the minor.— Shall mean the custodian or employees and officials of the programs, centers, or institutions that provide care, education, treatment, or detention services to minors twenty-four (24) hours a day or part thereof.
(dd) Respondent.— Shall mean any person against whom a protection order is requested.
(ee) Petitioner.— Shall mean the father, mother, law enforcement officer, official of the Department of Justice or the Department of the Family, relative of the minor, or other person responsible therefor who petitions the court to issue a protection order.
(ff) Permanency plan.— Shall mean the design and implementation of activities with the minor and his/her family geared towards achieving the stability, safety, and best interests of such minor, taking into account the available resources.
(gg) Service plan.— Shall mean the systematic organization of goals, objectives, and activities set within a timeframe and which result from a process of information gathering and evaluation based on the family’s strengths, in order to overcome such family’s needs and provide direction as to the social care of the minor and his/her family.
(hh) Prevalence of rights.— Shall mean that, in any act, decision, or measure, whether administrative, judicial, or of any other nature, which shall be adopted with regards to a minor, the rights of such minor shall prevail, especially if there is conflict between his/her fundamental rights and those of any other person.
In the event of conflict between two or more legal, administrative, or disciplinary provisions, the standards that are most favorable to the best interests of the child, as determined by a court or administrative forum, shall prevail.
(ii) Termination of parental rights.— Shall mean the termination of the rights that parents have over their children pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico.
(jj) Comprehensive protection.— Shall mean the recognition of children as subjects of their rights, the guarantee and fulfillment thereof, the elimination of threats to their safety and their immediate reinstatement in accordance with the principle of the best interests of the child. Comprehensive protection shall materialize thorough the policies, plans, programs, and actions executed, together with their corresponding allotment of financial, physical, and human resources.
(kk) Family resource.— Shall mean a family home with one or more members that has been evaluated and certified by the Department, and whose members are related to the minor within the third degree of consanguinity and can guarantee his/her safety and well-being as provided in this section.
(ll) Foster home network.— Shall mean a group of families that are licensed and certified by the Department, registered in the child protection program subsidized by the State, and that are willing to immediately and voluntarily accept children and temporarily provide them with the care and attention they need.
(mm) Central register.— Shall mean the work unit established the Department that gathers information about all referrals and cases of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect.
(nn) Removal.— Shall mean the action taken by the Department, with the previous authorization of the court, to obtain custody of a minor whose stability and safety are threatened and must be protected.
(oo) Parental responsibility.— Shall mean the inherent duties of parents regarding guidance, care, affection, companionship, and upbringing of their children during their formative years. This includes a supportive and shared responsibility of the parents to ensure that such children can achieve the maximum enjoyment of their rights.
Under no circumstance shall the exercise of parental responsibility include physical or psychological violence or acts that impair the exercise of the children’s rights.
(pp) Family reunification.— Shall mean bringing the child together with the family from which he/she was removed so that it can provide him/her with affection, health, education, safety, well-being, care, and companionship, as well as to guarantee his/her optimum development as a human being.
(qq) Risk.— Shall mean the probability that a child may become a victim of abuse or neglect in the future at the hands of his/her father, mother, or person responsible for him/her.
(rr) Imminent risk.— Shall mean any situation that endangers the health, safety, and physical, emotional, and/or sexual well-being of a minor.
(ss) Risk of death.— Shall mean an act that places the minor in circumstances that may cause his/her death.
(tt) Secretary.— Shall mean the Secretary of the Department of the Family.
(uu) Social protective services.— Shall mean the specialized services to achieve the safety and well-being of minors and preventing the risk of them suffering abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect. It shall also mean the services provided to parents or other persons responsible for minors in order to encourage modification of their child-rearing patterns. The fact that a minor may be a parent and the subject of a report does not make the minor ineligible to receive protective services.
(vv) Subject of a report.— Shall mean any person referred under this chapter, including any minor, parent, or other person, in charge of the well-being of a minor.
(ww) Protective supervision.— Shall mean supervision by the Department of a minor who continues to live at home after a court finds that he/she has been the victim of abuse and/or neglect.
(xx) Human trafficking.— Shall mean any conduct that results in sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.
(yy) Court.— Shall mean any Part of the Court of First Instance of the Government of Puerto Rico.
History —Dec. 16, 2011, No. 246, § 3, eff. 90 days after Dec. 16, 2011.