Opinion ID: 2653534
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statutory Elements of a “CHINS 1” Action.

Text: Not every endangered child is a child in need of services, permitting the State’s parens patriae intrusion into the ordinarily private sphere of the family. See generally In re K.D., 962 N.E.2d at 1255. Rather, a CHINS adjudication under Indiana Code section 31-34-1-1 (often called a “CHINS 1,” in reference to the section number) requires three basic elements: that the parent’s actions or inactions have seriously endangered the child, that the child’s needs are unmet, and (perhaps most critically) that those needs are unlikely to be met without State coercion. In full, the statute provides: A child is a child in need of services if before the child becomes eighteen (18) years of age: (1) the child’s physical or mental condition is seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal, or neglect of the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian to supply the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, or supervision; and (2) the child needs care, treatment, or rehabilitation that: (A) the child is not receiving; and (B) is unlikely to be provided or accepted without the coercive intervention of the court. I.C. § 31-34-1-1 (2008) (emphasis added). That final element guards against unwarranted State interference in family life, reserving that intrusion for families “where parents lack the ability to provide for their children,” not merely where they “encounter difficulty in meeting a child’s needs.” Lake Cnty. Div. of Family & Children Servs. v. Charlton, 631 N.E.2d 526, 528 (Ind. Ct. App. 1994).