2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 23B - Comprehensive Child Wellbeing and Protection Act (§§ 444 — 450m) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§§ 444 — 444j) › § 444 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated below:
(a) Abandonment.— Shall mean willful dereliction of or being remiss in the responsibilities that the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor have, taking into account their age and their need for adult care. The intention to abandon can be evidenced by, but 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 reunite the minor with the father, mother, or other person in charge of the wellbeing of the minor;
(3) a failure to respond to notices of hearings for protection of the minor, or
(4) when the minor is found in circumstances that make it impossible to ascertain the identity of the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor’s wellbeing; when the identity is known, but the whereabouts of the person is unknown, in spite of effort to locate him or her; or when the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor’s wellbeing fails to claim the minor within thirty (30) days after the minor is found.
(b) Sexual abuse.— Shall mean engaging in sexual conduct in the presence of a child and/or utilizing the child, voluntarily or otherwise, to engage in sexual conduct aimed at satisfying lewdness, or any other act that, if criminally prosecuted, would constitute any of the following crimes: sexual assault; lewd acts; indecent exposure or indecent proposals; producing child pornography; possessing and distributing child pornography; using a minor for child pornography; remitting, transporting, selling, distributing, publishing, exhibiting, or possessing obscene materials, and obscene shows as typified in the Penal Code of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(c) Protection cases.— Shall mean situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect and/or institutional neglect of minors, as these terms are defined in this section, and supported by an investigation.
(d) Lewd conduct.— Shall mean any physical activity of the human body, whether carried out alone or with other persons, including singing, talking, dancing, acting, simulating, or pantomiming, which as a whole is considered by the average person and according to contemporary community standards, to appeal to lustful interests, that is, a morbid interest in nudity, sexuality or physiological functions and which represents or depicts in an overtly offensive manner any sexual conduct and lacks any serious literary, artistic, political, religious, scientific or educational value.
(e) Emergency custody.— Shall mean that which is exercised by someone other than the father or the mother, when the situation in which a minor is found constitutes an imminent danger to the minor’s safety, health, physical, mental or emotional integrity, and/or his or her social wellbeing, if no immediate action is taken with regards to the minor’s custody.
(f) Custody.— Shall mean, besides that which parents have by virtue of the exercise of patria potestas, that which is granted by a court with jurisdiction.
(g) Temporary custody.— Shall mean that which is granted by a judge in a custody termination suit, or when a protection order is issued against the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor, for a specified period, subject to review, until the conclusion of the proceedings.
(h) Physical custody.— Shall mean having a minor under one’s care and protection without this implying the exercise of the rights and obligations inherent in patria potestas.
(i) Physical harm.— Shall mean any nonaccidental trauma, injury, or condition, including inadequate nourishment, which, if left unattended, could result in death, disfigurement, illness, or temporary or permanent disability of any part or function of the body, including inadequate nourishment. The trauma, injury, or condition may also be the result of a single episode or several episodes.
(j) Mental or emotional harm.— Shall mean the impairment of the intellectual or emotional capacity of a minor, given what is considered normal for his or her age or cultural environment. Moreover and subject to proof to the contrary, emotional harm shall be presumed to exist when there is evidence that the minor recurrently manifests or exhibits behaviors such as fear, aggressive behavior towards himself or herself or towards others, feelings of abandonment or hopelessness, frustration and failure, anxiety, insecurity, withdrawal, regressive behavior or behavior appropriate for a child of a lesser age, or any other similar behavior.
(k) Department.— Shall mean the Department of the Family of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(l) Diversion.— Shall mean a program to reeducate or retrain first-time offenders convicted of the crime of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect.
(m) Emergency.— Shall mean any situation that represents an imminent danger to the minor’s safety, health, physical, mental, or emotional integrity, and/or his or her social wellbeing, if no immediate action is taken with regard to the minor’s custody.
(n) Reasonable effort.— Shall mean all those activities or services that are offered to the father, mother, or other person in charge of a minor, and to the minors themselves, at home or elsewhere, in coordination with public and private entities, to guarantee their safety and wellbeing. Such efforts are aimed at protecting the minor, protecting the non-abusive adult, educating the abuser and maintaining the living environment of the minor as unaltered as possible as the goals of the assistance process for the family, and finding a permanent placement alternative when reuniting the family is not an option.
(o) Family.— Shall mean two (2) or more persons bound together by blood or legal ties, or family or kinship relationships, who share social, financial, and emotional responsibilities, whether or not they live in the same house.
(p) Foster home.— Shall mean a place that is devoted to the substitute care of no more than six (6) children from other homes or families, twenty-four hours a day, temporarily. It shall be a home that has undergone investigation, certification, or licensing, and is under the supervision of the Department.
(q) Unsubstantiated report.— Shall mean information offered pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, which when investigated is found to be lacking in grounds to support the allegations of abuse or neglect, or is determined to be false.
(r) Report to refer situations of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect.— Shall mean oral or written information offered by a person who is obliged 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 in which there is alleged suspicion or existence of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect, also known in this chapter as a “referral.”
(s) Abuse.— Shall mean any intentional act or omission by the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor of such a nature that it causes or puts a minor at risk of suffering damage or harm to his or her health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity, including sexual abuse as defined in this section. 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 damage or harm to his or her health or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity; to abandon a minor willfully; to allow the father, mother, or other person in charge of the wellbeing of the minor to exploit him or her; or to allow another person to do so by forcing or allowing the minor to perform any act, including but not limited to using the minor to engage in obscene acts for profit or in order to receive any other benefit, or to incur in any conduct that, if criminally prosecuted, would constitute a crime against the health, or physical, mental, or emotional integrity of the minor, including sexual abuse of the minor. Minors will also be considered to be victims of abuse if the father, mother, or person responsible for the minor has incurred in the conduct described above, or has engaged in acts that constitute domestic violence in the presence of minors, as defined in §§ 601 et seq. of this title.
(t) Institutional abuse.— Shall mean any act or omission by a foster parent or an employee or official of a public or private institution that provides caregiving services, for twenty-four (24) hours a day or part thereof, who has control over or custody of a minor for his or her care, education, treatment, or detention, who causes harm or endangers the health, or physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity of the minor, including sexual abuse; engages in obscene conduct and/or uses the minor to perform obscene acts, known or suspected, or which occur as a result of the prevailing policies, practices, and conditions in the institution in question; exploits the minor or allows someone else to do so, including, but not limited to, using the minor to perform obscene acts for profit or in order to receive any other benefit.
(u) Best interests of the minor.— Shall mean the balance between the different factors that may affect the safety, health, physical, mental, emotional, educational, and social wellbeing of the minor, or any other that is aimed at attaining optimum development of the minor.
(v) Minor.— Shall mean any person who has not yet attained the age of eighteen (18) years.
(w) Neglect.— Shall mean a type of abuse that consists of failing to perform the duties, or to exercise the capacity to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, or health care to a minor; failing to exercise supervision; failing to visit the minor or to remain in contact or frequent communication with the minor. A minor shall also be deemed a victim of neglect if the father, mother, or other person in charge of the minor has incurred in the conduct described in subsections (3) and (4) of § 634a of Title 31, part of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico.
(x) Institutional neglect.— Shall mean the neglect incurred in, or suspected to be incurred by, by the operator of a foster home, or any employee or official of a private or public institution that provides caregiving services during a twenty-four (24) hours period or fraction thereof, or who has control over or custody of a minor for his/her care, education, treatment, or detention, who causes harm to a minor or puts him or her at risk of suffering harm to his or her health, physical, mental, and/or emotional integrity, including sexual abuse, known or suspected, or which occurs as a result of the policies, practices, and conditions in the institution in question.
(y) 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 and/or neglect.
(z) Person in charge of the minor.— Shall mean the custodian, employees, or officials of the programs, centers, or institutions that provide care, education, treatment, or detention services to minors for twenty-four (24) hours a day or part thereof.
(aa) Respondent.— Shall mean any person against whom a protection order is requested.
(bb) Petitioner.— Shall mean the father, the mother, a law enforcement officer, any official of the Department of Justice and/or of the Department of the Family, a relative of the minor up to the third degree of consanguinity, or other person in charge of the minor who petitions the court for a protection order.
(cc) Permanency plan.— Shall mean the design and implementation of activities with the minor and his or her family geared to achieve the stability, safety, and best interests of the minor, taking into account the resources available.
(dd) Service plan.— Shall mean the systematic organization of the goals, objectives, and activities, expressed within a time frame, which result from a process of information gathering and evaluation based on the strong points of the family to overcome their needs and which will give direction to the social care of the minor and his or her family.
(ee) Deprivation of patria potestas.— Shall mean the termination of the rights of the parents with regard to their children, pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico, Title 31.
(ff) Imminent risk.— Shall mean any situation that represents a danger to the health, safety, and physical, emotional, and/or sexual wellbeing of a minor.
(gg) Risk of death.— Shall mean an act that places the minor in circumstances that may cause his or her death.
(hh) Central registry.— Shall mean the working unit established in the Department to gather information about all referrals and cases of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect.
(ii) Removal.— Shall mean the action taken by the Department, on the court’s authorization, to obtain custody of a minor whose stability and safety are being threatened and who must be protected.
(jj) Reuniting the family.— Shall mean bringing the minor together with the family from which he/she was removed in order to give or provide the minor with affection, health, education, safety, wellbeing, care, and companionship, and to guarantee his or her optimum development as a human being.
(kk) Secretary.— Shall mean the Secretary of the Department of the Family.
(ll) Social protective services.— Shall mean the specialized services for achieving the safety and well-being of minors, and for preventing the risk of suffering abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, or institutional neglect. It shall also mean the services provided to parents or to other persons responsible for minors, to encourage modification of their child-rearing patterns. For purposes of this definition, the fact that a minor is a parent and the subject of a report does not make the minor ineligible to receive protective services.
(mm) Subject of a report.— Shall mean any person who is referred under this chapter, including any minor, parent, or other person in charge of the wellbeing of a minor.
(nn) Protective supervision.— Shall mean supervision by the Department of a minor who continues to live at home, after a court finds that he or she has been the victim of abuse and/or neglect.
(oo) Court.— Shall mean any part of the Court of First Instance of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
History —Aug. 1, 2003, No. 177, § 2; Sept. 16, 2004, No. 357, § 1; Sept. 29, 2004, No. 510, § 1; Aug. 7, 2008, No. 193, § 1; Dec. 28, 2010, No. 219, § 1.