§ 36-7-102. Chapter Definitions - US Lawyer Database

In this chapter:

“Adult” means an individual who has attained eighteen (18) years of age or is an emancipated minor;

“Caretaking authority” means the right to live with and care for a child on a day-to-day basis. “Caretaking authority” includes physical custody, parenting time, right to access, and visitation;

“Child” means:
1. An unemancipated individual who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age; or
2. An adult son or daughter by birth or adoption, or under law of this state other than this chapter, who is the subject of a court order concerning custodial responsibility;

“Court” means a tribunal, including an administrative agency, authorized under law of this state other than this chapter to make, enforce, or modify a decision regarding custodial responsibility;

“Custodial responsibility” includes all powers and duties relating to caretaking authority and decision-making authority for a child. “Custodial responsibility” includes physical custody, legal custody, parenting time, right to access, visitation, and authority to grant limited contact with a child;

1. “Decision-making authority” means the power to make important decisions regarding a child, including decisions regarding the child’s education, religious training, health care, extracurricular activities, and travel;
2. “Decision-making authority” does not include the power to make decisions that necessarily accompany a grant of caretaking authority;

“Deploying parent” means a service member who is deployed or has been notified of impending deployment and is:
1. A parent of a child under law of this state other than this chapter; or
2. An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than this chapter;

“Deployment” means the movement or mobilization of a service member for more than thirty (30) days pursuant to uniformed service orders that:
1. Are designated as unaccompanied;
2. Do not authorize dependent travel; or
3. Otherwise do not permit the movement of family members to the location to which the service member is deployed;

“Family member” means a sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, stepparent, or grandparent of a child or an individual recognized to be in a familial relationship with a child under law of this state other than this chapter;

“Limited contact” means the authority of a nonparent to visit a child for a limited time. “Limited contact” includes authority to take the child to a place other than the residence of the child;

“Nonparent” means an individual other than a deploying parent or other parent;

“Other parent” means an individual who, in common with a deploying parent, is:
1. A parent of a child under law of this state other than this chapter; or
2. An individual who has custodial responsibility for a child under law of this state other than this chapter;

“Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form;

“Return from deployment” means the conclusion of a service member’s deployment as specified in uniformed service orders;

“Service member” means a member of a uniformed service;

“Sign” means with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
1. To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
2. To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process;

“State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; and

“Uniformed service” means:
1. Active and reserve components of the army, navy, air force, marine corps, or coast guard of the United States;
2. The United States merchant marine;
3. The commissioned corps of the United States public health service;
4. The commissioned corps of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration of the United States; or
5. The national guard of a state.