(a)  Immediately upon any time that a hospital or other facility designated in this chapter takes physical possession of an infant pursuant to this chapter, the hospital or other facility designated in this chapter shall notify the director of the department of children, youth and families, or his or her designee, that it has physical possession of the infant. The director of the department of children, youth and families shall establish a procedure by which a hospital or other facility designated in this chapter can notify the department for children, youth and families. The department of children, youth and families shall immediately respond to the hospital or other facility designated in this chapter and place the infant in the temporary protective custody of the department and make arrangements for the infant to undergo a comprehensive medical examination by a licensed physician or a duly certified registered nurse practitioner in accordance with the provisions of § 40-11-5. Thereafter, the department of children, youth and families shall file an emergency petition for the removal of the infant from the care and custody of the parents in accordance with the provisions of § 40-11-7.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-13.1-5

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Infant: means a newborn human child which is thirty (30) days old or younger. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-13.1-2
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6

(b)  The department of children, youth and families shall, upon obtaining temporary custody of the infant and provided that no person has asserted a claim to be the parent of the infant within ninety (90) days of the department obtaining custody, commence proceedings to terminate the parental rights of the parents of the infant in accordance with the provisions of § 15-7-7. The leaving of the infant at a hospital or other facility designated herein and the failure of a person to assert a claim to be the parent of the infant within ninety (90) days of the infant being placed in the temporary custody of the department of children, youth and families shall constitute prima facie evidence of permanent abandonment of the infant.

History of Section.
P.L. 2001, ch. 53, § 1; P.L. 2001, ch. 130, § 1.