Report Child Abuse

‘Physical abuse’ means any physical injury, mental injury, or threatened injury inflicted by a person responsible for the child’s care on a child by other than accidental means; physical or mental injury that cannot reasonably be explained by the child’s history of injuries; or any aversive and deprivation procedures or regulated interventions that have not been authorized by law. Actions that are not reasonable and moderate include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

• Throwing, kicking, burning, biting, or cutting a child
• Striking a child with a closed fist
• Shaking a child under age 3
• Striking or other actions that result in any nonaccidental injury to a child under age 18 months
• Unreasonable interference with a child’s breathing
• Threatening a child with a weapon
• Striking a child under age 1 on the face or head
• Striking a child who is at least age 1 but under age 4 on the face or head, which results in an injury
• Purposely giving a child poison, alcohol, or dangerous, harmful, or controlled substances that were not prescribed for the child by a practitioner to control or punish the child; giving the child substances that substantially affect the child’s behavior, motor coordination, or judgment or that result in sickness or internal injury; or subjecting the child to medical procedures that would be unnecessary if the child were not exposed to the substances
• Unreasonable physical confinement or restraint not permitted by law, including, but not limited to, tying, caging, or chaining
• In a school facility or school zone, an act by a person responsible for the child’s care that is a violation under § 121A.58 (prohibiting corporal punishment)

Sexual abuse occurs when an adult uses a child for sexual purposes or involves a child in sexual acts. It also includes when a child who is older or more powerful uses another child for sexual gratification or excitement. 20.7% of adults report being sexually abused as a child.

‘Sexual abuse’ means the subjection of a child by a person responsible for the child’s care, by a person who has a significant relationship to the child, or by a person in a current or recent position of authority to any act that constitutes a violation of any of the following:

• Criminal sexual conduct
• Solicitation of children to engage in sexual conduct
• Communication of sexually explicit materials to children
• Any act involving a child that constitutes a violation of prostitution offenses
• Child sex trafficking
• Threatened sexual abuse, which includes the status of a parent or household member who has committed a violation that requires registration as a predatory offender

Emotional abuse occurs when a parent or caregiver harms a child’s mental and social development, or causes severe emotional harm, it is considered emotional abuse. While a single incident may be abuse, most often emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that causes damage over time.10.6% of adults report being emotionally abused as a child.

‘Emotional maltreatment’ means the consistent, deliberate infliction of mental harm on a child by a person responsible for the child’s care that has an observable, sustained, and adverse effect on the child’s physical, mental, or emotional development.

‘Neglect’ means the commission or omission of any of the acts specified below by other than accidental means:

• Failure by a person responsible for a child’s care to supply a child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, health, medical, or other care required for the child’s physical or mental health when reasonably able to do so
• Failure to protect a child from conditions or actions that seriously endanger the child’s physical or mental health when reasonably able to do so, including a growth delay (which may be referred to as failure to thrive) that has been diagnosed by a physician and is due to parental neglect
• Failure to provide necessary supervision or child care arrangements appropriate for a child after considering such factors as the child’s age, mental ability, physical condition, length of absence, or environment when the child is unable to care for their own basic needs or safety or the basic needs or safety of another child in their care
• Failure to ensure that the child is educated as required by State law, which does not include a parent’s refusal to provide their child with sympathomimetic medications
• Prenatal exposure to a controlled substance used by the mother for a nonmedical purpose, as evidenced by withdrawal symptoms in the child at birth, results of a toxicology test performed on the mother at delivery or the child at birth, or medical effects or developmental delays during the child’s first year of life that medically indicate prenatal exposure to a controlled substance, or the presence of a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
• ‘Medical neglect’ that includes, but is not limited to, withholding medically indicated treatment from a disabled infant with a life-threatening condition
• Chronic and severe use of alcohol or a controlled substance by a parent or person responsible for the care of the child that adversely affects the child’s basic needs and safety