Idaho State Statutes - Idaho Attorney Directory

When used in this chapter, unless the text
otherwise requires:
(1) "Court" means the district court or magistrate's division thereof or,
if the context requires, a judge or magistrate thereof.
(2) "Child" or "minor" means any individual who is under the age of
eighteen (18) years.
(3) "Neglected" means:
(a) Conduct as defined in section 16-1602(25), Idaho Code; or
(b) The parent(s) has failed to comply with the court's orders in a child
protective act case or the case plan, and reunification of the child with
his or her parent(s) has not occurred within the time standards set forth
in section 16-1629(9), Idaho Code.
(4) "Abused" means conduct as defined in section 16-1602(1), Idaho Code.
(5) "Abandoned" means the parent has willfully failed to maintain a
normal parental relationship including, but not limited to, reasonable support
or regular personal contact. Failure of the parent to maintain this
relationship without just cause for a period of one (1) year shall constitute
prima facie evidence of abandonment under this section; provided however,
where termination is sought by a grandparent seeking to adopt the child, the
willful failure of the parent to maintain a normal parental relationship as
provided herein without just cause for six (6) months shall constitute prima
facie evidence of abandonment.
(6) "Legal custody" means status created by court order which vests in a
custodian the following rights and responsibilities:
(a) To have physical custody and control of the child and to determine
where and with whom the child shall live;
(b) To supply the child with food, clothing, shelter and incidental
necessities;
(c) To provide the child with care, education and discipline; and
(d) To authorize medical, dental, psychiatric, psychological and other
remedial care and treatment for the child, including care and treatment in
a facility with a program of services for children;
provided that such rights and responsibilities shall be exercised subject to
the powers, rights, duties and responsibilities of the guardian of the person.
(7) "Guardianship of the person" means those rights and duties imposed
upon a person appointed as guardian of a minor under the laws of Idaho. It
includes but is not necessarily limited either in number or kind to:
(a) The authority to consent to marriage, to enlistment in the armed
forces of the United States, and to major medical, psychiatric and
surgical treatment; to represent the minor in legal actions; and to make
other decisions concerning the child of substantial legal significance;
(b) The authority and duty of reasonable visitation, except to the extent
that such right of visitation has been limited by court order;
(c) The rights and responsibilities of legal custody except where legal
custody has been vested in another individual or in an authorized child
placement agency;
(d) When the parent and child relationship has been terminated by
judicial decree with respect to the parents, or only living parent, or
when there is no living parent, the authority to consent to the adoption
of the child and to make any other decision concerning the child which the
child's parents could make.
(8) "Guardian ad litem" means a person appointed by the court pursuant to
section 16-1614 or 5-306, Idaho Code.
(9) "Authorized agency" means the department, a local agency, a person,
an organization, corporation, benevolent society or association licensed or
approved by the department or the court to receive children for control, care,
maintenance or placement.
(10) "Department" means the department of health and welfare and its
authorized representatives.
(11) "Parent" means:
(a) The birth mother or the adoptive mother;
(b) The adoptive father;
(c) The biological father of a child conceived or born during the
father's marriage to the birth mother; and
(d) The unmarried biological father whose consent to an adoption of the
child is required pursuant to section 16-1504, Idaho Code.
(12) "Presumptive father" means a man who is or was married to the birth
mother and the child is born during the marriage or within three hundred (300)
days after the marriage is terminated.
(13) "Parent and child relationship" includes all rights, privileges,
duties and obligations existing between parent and child, including
inheritance rights, and shall be construed to include adoptive parents.
(14) "Parties" includes the child and the petitioners.
(15) "Unmarried biological father," as used in this chapter and chapter
15, title 16, Idaho Code, means the biological father of a child who was not
married to the child's mother at the time the child was conceived or born.
(16) "Unmarried biological mother," as used in this chapter, means the
biological mother of a child who was not married to the child's biological
father at the time the child was conceived or born.
(17) "Disability" means, with respect to an individual, any mental or
physical impairment which substantially limits one (1) or more major life
activities of the individual including, but not limited to, self-care, manual
tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning, or working, or a record
of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment.
Disability shall not include transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia,
exhibitionism, voyeurism, other sexual behavior disorders, or substance use
disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, or pyromania. Sexual preference
or orientation is not considered an impairment or disability. Whether an
impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be determined
without consideration of the effect of corrective or mitigating measures used
to reduce the effects of the impairment.
(18) "Adaptive equipment" means any piece of equipment or any item that is
used to increase, maintain, or improve the parenting abilities of a parent
with a disability.
(19) "Supportive services" means services which assist a parent with a
disability to compensate for those aspects of their disability which affect
their ability to care for their child and which will enable them to discharge
their parental responsibilities. The term includes specialized or adapted
training, evaluations, or assistance with effective use of adaptive equipment,
and accommodations which allow a parent with a disability to benefit from
other services, such as Braille texts or sign language interpreters.

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