Ohio Code 2151.03 – Neglected child defined – failure to provide medical or surgical care for religious reasons
(A) As used in this chapter, “neglected child” includes any child:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 2151.03
- Adequate parental care: means the provision by a child's parent or parents, guardian, or custodian of adequate food, clothing, and shelter to ensure the child's health and physical safety and the provision by a child's parent or parents of specialized services warranted by the child's physical or mental needs. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- Child: means a person who is under eighteen years of age, except that the juvenile court has jurisdiction over any person who is adjudicated an unruly child prior to attaining eighteen years of age until the person attains twenty-one years of age, and, for purposes of that jurisdiction related to that adjudication, a person who is so adjudicated an unruly child shall be deemed a "child" until the person attains twenty-one years of age. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- Custodian: means a person who has legal custody of a child or a public children services agency or private child placing agency that has permanent, temporary, or legal custody of a child. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- 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: means a person, association, or corporation that is granted authority by a probate court pursuant to Chapter 2111 of the Revised Code to exercise parental rights over a child to the extent provided in the court's order and subject to the residual parental rights of the child's parents. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- Mental injury: means any behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorder in a child caused by an act or omission that is described in section 2919. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- Out-of-home care: means detention facilities, shelter facilities, certified children's crisis care facilities, certified foster homes, placement in a prospective adoptive home prior to the issuance of a final decree of adoption, organizations, certified organizations, child care centers, type A family child care homes, type B family child care homes, child care provided by in-home aides, group home providers, group homes, institutions, state institutions, residential facilities, residential care facilities, residential camps, day camps, private, nonprofit therapeutic wilderness camps, public schools, chartered nonpublic schools, educational service centers, hospitals, and medical clinics that are responsible for the care, physical custody, or control of children. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- Person: means an individual, association, corporation, or partnership and the state or any of its political subdivisions, departments, or agencies. See Ohio Code 2151.011
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
(1) Who is abandoned by the child’s parents, guardian, or custodian;
(2) Who lacks adequate parental care because of the faults or habits of the child’s parents, guardian, or custodian;
(3) Whose parents, guardian, or custodian neglects the child or refuses to provide proper or necessary subsistence, education, medical or surgical care or treatment, or other care necessary for the child’s health, morals, or well being;
(4) Whose parents, guardian, or custodian neglects the child or refuses to provide the special care made necessary by the child’s mental condition;
(5) Whose parents, legal guardian, or custodian have placed or attempted to place the child in violation of sections 5103.16 and 5103.17 of the Revised Code;
(6) Who, because of the omission of the child’s parents, guardian, or custodian, suffers physical or mental injury that harms or threatens to harm the child’s health or welfare;
(7) Who is subjected to out-of-home care child neglect.
(B) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as subjecting a parent, guardian, or custodian of a child to criminal liability when, solely in the practice of religious beliefs, the parent, guardian, or custodian fails to provide adequate medical or surgical care or treatment for the child. This division does not abrogate or limit any person‘s responsibility under section 2151.421 of the Revised Code to report child abuse that is known or reasonably suspected or believed to have occurred, child neglect that is known or reasonably suspected or believed to have occurred, and children who are known to face or are reasonably suspected or believed to be facing a threat of suffering abuse or neglect and does not preclude any exercise of the authority of the state, any political subdivision, or any court to ensure that medical or surgical care or treatment is provided to a child when the child’s health requires the provision of medical or surgical care or treatment.