§ 2-101. Definitions.
A. “Adjudicatory hearing” means a hearing to determine whether the allegations of a petition (pursuant to the provisions of this chapter or Chapter 5 of this Title) alleging a child to be neglected, deprived, in need of supervision or delinquent filed pursuant to this Title are supported by evidence.
B. “Aunt” means a person who, by blood or marriage, is:
1. A female sibling of a biological parent;
3. A female child of a grandparent, or
4. Any other female person, who by virtue of an adoption, either of themselves or of a member of their family pursuant to the laws written or commonly held by virtue of culture of any Indian tribe or state, would come within the terms of subsection (B)(1), (B)(2) or (B)(3) of this section.
C. “Best interest of a child” means all relevant factors, including but not limited to, the following:
3. The interaction and interrelationship of the child with his parents, siblings and any other persons who may significantly affect a child’s best interest;
4. The child’s adjustment to his home, school and community; and
5. The mental and physical health of all individuals involved.
D. “Brother” means:
1. Any male sibling;
2. Any other male person, who by virtue of an adoption either of themselves or of a member of their family pursuant to the laws or customs of any Indian Tribe or state, would hold the relationship of a sibling with the person in question.
E. “Brother-in-law” means the husband of a sister by blood or marriage.
F. “Child” means a person under the age of eighteen (18) years except any person who has been certified as an adult pursuant to Section 5-148 of this Title or a person who has been emancipated.
G. “Child care center” means an institution or facility designed for the care of children licensed or approved pursuant to Osage Nation law or program policy, or if outside the Osage Nation jurisdiction, by the law of the jurisdiction in which such facility is physically located, or both.
H. “Child in need of mental health treatment” means a child in need of mental health treatment as defined by Oklahoma’s Inpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment of Children Act, 43A O.S. § 5-501 et seq.
I. “Child with a disability” means any child who has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of the child or who is regarded as having such an impairment by a competent medical professional.
K. “Custody” means guardianship of the person.
L. “Day treatment” means a nonresidential program which provides intensive services to children who reside in their own home, the home of a relative, group home, a foster home or residential child care facility. Day treatment programs include but are not limited to educational services.
M. “Deprivation of custody” means the transfer of physical custody by the Court from a parent or a legal custodian to another person, agency or institution.
N. “Deprived child” means a child:
1. Who is for any reason destitute, homeless or abandoned, if abandoned when the parent, guardian or custodian has abandoned the child without apparent intent to return, or who has placed him or her informally and without benefit of tribal custom with any other person and/or has not contributed to the support of the child or maintained personal contact with the child for a period in excess of twelve (12) months;
2. Who does not have the proper parental care or guardianship or whose home is an unfit place for the child by reason of neglect, abuse, cruelty or depravity on the part of the child’s parents, legal guardian or other person(s) responsible for the child’s health or welfare or whose parent, guardian or custodian has suffered or allowed another to mistreat or abuse the child without taking lawful means to stop such maltreatment or abuse and prevent it from recurring;
3. Who is a child in need of special care and treatment because of his or her physical or mental condition, including but not limited to a child born in a condition of dependence on a controlled dangerous substance whose parents, legal guardian or other custodian are unable or wilfully fail to provide said special care and treatment;
4. Who is a child with a disability deprived of the nutrition necessary to sustain life or of the medical treatment necessary to remedy or relieve a life-threatening medical condition in order to cause or allow the death of said child if such nutrition or medical treatment is generally provided to similarly situated children without the disability or children with disabilities whether because of the fault of the parent, guardian or custodian or because the parent, guardian or custodian does not have the ability to provide for the child; provided, that no medical treatment is necessary, if in the reasonable medical judgment of the attending physician, such treatment would be futile in saving the life of the child;
5. Who is, due to improper parental care and guardianship, excessively absent from school, if a child is subject to compulsory school attendance;
6. Whose parent or legal custodian, for good cause, desires to be relieved of custody.
However, no child who, in good faith, is being provided with treatment and care by spiritual means alone in accordance with the tenets and practice of a recognized church, religious denomination, traditional healing or medicine or other religious organization by a recognized practitioner thereof shall be considered, for that reason alone, to be a deprived child pursuant to any provision of this Title.
O. “Dispositional hearing” means a hearing to determine the order of disposition which should be made with respect to a juvenile adjudged to be a ward of the Court to determine what treatment should be ordered for the family and the child and what placement of the child should be made during the period of treatment.
P. “Emancipation” means a procedure by which a child who is over sixteen (16) years of age and who has, with the real or apparent assent of his parents, demonstrated his independence from his parents in matters of care, custody and earnings, may petition the Court for recognition of such status. The term may include, but shall not be limited to, any child who has sole responsibility for his own support, who is married or who is in the military.
Q. “Emergency custody” means Court-ordered custody of a child prior to adjudication of the child.
R. “Foster care” or “foster care services” means continuous twenty-four (24) hour care and supportive services provided for a child in foster placement while the child needs foster care.
S. “Foster child” means a child placed in foster placement.
T. “Foster family” means all persons living in a foster family home other than a foster child.
U. “Foster family home” means the private residence of a family which provides foster care services to a child. Such term shall include a foster family home, a therapeutic foster family home or the home of a relative.
V. “Foster parent” means any individual maintaining a foster family home who is responsible for the care of a foster child.
W. “Foster placement” means a child placing agency or foster family home providing foster care services.
X. “Group care facility” means places other than foster family care homes or child care centers providing care for groups of children.
Y. “Grandparent” means:
1. A biological grandparent;
2. The brother and sisters of a biological grandparent, and their spouses, or
3. Any other person, who by virtue of an adoption either of themselves or a member of their family pursuant to the laws or customs of any Indian Tribe or state, would come within the terms of subsection (Y)(1) or (Y)(2) of this section.
Z. “Guardian” means a person other than the child’s parent who is by law responsible for that child.
AA. “Investigation” means a mandatory pre-adjudicatory process by the Indian Child Welfare Department to determine the safety of a child and to make a recommendation to the Tribal Prosecutor as to whether a petition should be filed alleging a child to be a deprived child or whether other nonadjudicatory alternatives are available.
BB. “Indian Child Welfare” or “Indian Child Welfare Department” means the Indian Child Welfare program of the Osage Nation.
CC. “Juvenile Court” or “Court” means the Juvenile Division of the Osage Nation Court system or the Juvenile Court or CFR court established for other Indian Tribes or as state juvenile courts is appropriate from the context.
DD. “Least restrictive alternative” means restrictions placed on a child which are reasonably related to the Court’s objectives and are the least drastic methods available to achieve those objectives.
EE. “Mental health facility” means a mental health facility as defined by the Oklahoma’s Inpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment of Children Act, 43A O.S. § 5-501 et seq.
FF. “Neglected child” or “dependent child” means a deprived child.
GG. “Nephew” means the male child of a brother, sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law by blood, marriage, adoption or custom.
HH. “Niece” means the female child of a brother, sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law by blood, marriage, adoption or custom.
II. “Out-of-home placement” means a placement, other than the placement in the home of the parent or guardian from whose custody the Court has removed the child, until the child is reunited with the child’s parents.
JJ. “Parent” means either a natural parent or a parent by adoption, custom, common law or tradition. Parent does not include an unwed father unless he has acknowledged paternity of the child orally to two or more disinterested parties or in writing under oath unless paternity has been established by judicial action or was established prior to the child’s birth.
KK. “Permanent custody” means Court-ordered custody of an adjudicated deprived child whose parental rights have been terminated.
LL. “Person responsible for a child’s health or welfare” includes a parent, legal guardian, custodian, a foster parent, a person eighteen (18) years of age or older with whom the child’s parent cohabitates or any other adult residing in the home of the child; an agent or employee of a public or private residential home, institution, facility or day treatment program; or an owner, operator or employee of a child care facility.
MM. “Placement agency” means an agency designed for the care of children or placement of children licensed or approved pursuant to Osage Nation law, or, if outside the Osage Nation’s jurisdiction, by the law of the jurisdiction in which such facility is physically located or both.
NN. “Preliminary inquiry” means an assessment and determination as to whether there is sufficient information to proceed with an investigation of abuse or neglect of a child or an investigation of failure to protect by the person responsible for the child when there are allegations of abuse or neglect.
OO. “Protective custody” means custody of a child taken pursuant to Section 2-106 et seq. of this Title.
PP. “Protective supervision” means a legal status created by Court order under which the child is permitted to remain in his own home under the supervision of the Juvenile Court through the Osage Nation Indian Child Welfare Services during the period during which treatment is being provided to the family by the Osage Nation Indian Child Welfare Services or other agencies designated by the Court.
QQ. “Relative” means a grandparent, great grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, cousin or any other person related to the child within the fourth degree of consanguinity.
RR. “Residential child care center” means a twenty-four (24) hour-a-day residential group care facility at which a specified number of children, normally unrelated, reside with adults other than their parents.
SS. “Residual parental rights and responsibilities” means those rights and responsibilities remaining with the parent(s) after legal custody or guardianship of the person of said child has been vested in another person, agency or institution, but where parental rights have not been terminated, including but not necessarily limited to, the responsibility for support, the right to consent to adoption, the right to inherit from the child and the right to reasonable visitation with the child unless restricted by the Court.
TT. “Shelter” means a facility for the temporary care of a child in physically unrestricting facilities pending Court disposition or execution of a Court order for emergency or temporary placement.
UU. “Step-parent” means a person married to a biological parent but who is not a biological parent of the child.
VV. “Sister” means:
1. Any female sibling;
2. Any other female person, who by virtue of an adoption either of themselves or of a member of their family pursuant to the laws or customs of any Indian Tribe or state, would hold the relationship of a sibling with the person in question.
WW. “Sister-in-law” means the wife of a brother by blood or marriage.
XX. “Temporary custody” means Court-ordered custody of an adjudicated deprived child.
YY. “Termination of parental rights” or “termination of the parent-child legal relationship” means the permanent elimination by Court order of all parental rights and duties, including residual parental rights and duties, but not including the child’s right to inherit from the parent whose rights have been terminated and the child’s right to receive financial support from the parent whose rights have been terminated.
ZZ. “Traditional custodian” means those relatives of the child other than the parents, who by force of the traditions, customs and common law of the Osage Nation have the rights, duties and responsibilities of assisting the parents in rearing the child and providing for his or her support or may act in loco parentis by virtue of custom and tradition.
AAA. “Transfer proceedings” means any proceeding in the Osage Nation Court system to grant, accept or decline transfer of any children’s case from or to the courts of any Indian Tribe or state whenever such transfer is authorized by tribal, federal or state law.
BBB. “Treatment and service plan” means a written document which includes at least the following:
1. A plan for assuring the child receives proper care;
2. A plan for assuring that services are provided to the parents, child and placement providers;
3. A plan to improve the conditions in the parents’ home;
4. A plan to facilitate return of the child to the child’s own home or to an alternate permanent placement;
5. A plan to address the needs of the child while in out-of-home care; and
6. A plan that discusses the appropriateness of the services for the child under the plan.
CCC. “Trial Court” means the Trial Court of the Osage Nation; and
DDD. “Uncle” means a person who by blood or marriage is:
1. A male sibling of a biological parent;
3. A male child of a grandparent; or
4. Any other male person who, by virtue of an adoption either of themselves or of a member of their family pursuant to the laws written or commonly held by virtue of culture of any Indian Tribe or state, would come within the terms of subsection (DDD)(1), (DDD)(2) or (DDD)(3) of this section. ONCA 11-41, eff. Apr. 12, 2011.