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12-18-602. Initiation of the investigation.
Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
12-18-602. Initiation of the investigation.
(a) The Department of Human Services and the Division of Arkansas State Police shall cause an investigation to be made upon receiving initial notification of suspected child maltreatment or notification of a child death.
(b)(1) All investigations shall begin within seventy-two (72) hours.
(2) However, the investigation shall begin within twenty-four (24) hours if:
(A) The allegation is severe maltreatment, excluding an allegation:
(i) Of sexual abuse if the most recent allegation of sexual abuse was more than one (1) year ago or the alleged victim does not currently have contact with the alleged offender;
(ii) Of abandonment and the child is in a facility;
(iii) Of cuts, welts, bruises, or suffocation if the most recent allegation was more than one (1) year ago and the alleged victim is in the custody of the Department of Human Services; or
(iv) In which the alleged victim is in a facility and does not currently have contact with the alleged offender;
(B) The allegation is that a child has been subjected to neglect as defined in § 12-18-103(14)(B); or
(C) A child has died suddenly and unexpectedly.
(c) At the initial time of contact with the alleged offender, the person conducting the investigation shall advise the alleged offender of the allegations made against the alleged offender in a manner that is consistent with the laws protecting the rights of the person who made the report.
(d) The Department of Human Services and the Division of Arkansas State Police shall:
(1) Develop policy and procedures to follow when a child dies suddenly and unexpectedly to use in a child death investigation;
(2) Determine during the Department of Human Services’ and the Division of Arkansas State Police’s investiga
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 12-18-602
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. A text match is a research starting point; applicability is not established.
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Record provenance
Stable record: arkansas_code:legal_authorities:12-18-602
Source file: gov.ar.code.title.12.odt
Pages: Not recorded – Not recorded
Passage SHA-256: 28c1bed899f2c482e1df1675fc9b40f23366e93a953cde8a2e61f88cc5fd4827
Source location: content.xml paragraph 9803
Stored source content
12-18-602. Initiation of the investigation.
(a) The Department of Human Services and the Division of Arkansas State Police shall cause an investigation to be made upon receiving initial notification of suspected child maltreatment or notification of a child death.
(b)(1) All investigations shall begin within seventy-two (72) hours.
(2) However, the investigation shall begin within twenty-four (24) hours if:
(A) The allegation is severe maltreatment, excluding an allegation:
(i) Of sexual abuse if the most recent allegation of sexual abuse was more than one (1) year ago or the alleged victim does not currently have contact with the alleged offender;
(ii) Of abandonment and the child is in a facility;
(iii) Of cuts, welts, bruises, or suffocation if the most recent allegation was more than one (1) year ago and the alleged victim is in the custody of the Department of Human Services; or
(iv) In which the alleged victim is in a facility and does not currently have contact with the alleged offender;
(B) The allegation is that a child has been subjected to neglect as defined in § 12-18-103(14)(B); or
(C) A child has died suddenly and unexpectedly.
(c) At the initial time of contact with the alleged offender, the person conducting the investigation shall advise the alleged offender of the allegations made against the alleged offender in a manner that is consistent with the laws protecting the rights of the person who made the report.
(d) The Department of Human Services and the Division of Arkansas State Police shall:
(1) Develop policy and procedures to follow when a child dies suddenly and unexpectedly to use in a child death investigation;
(2) Determine during the Department of Human Services’ and the Division of Arkansas State Police’s investigation whether the child's death was caused by child maltreatment; and
(3) Assess the home to ensure the safety of surviving siblings or children in the home.
(e) Upon initiation of the investigation, the primary focus of the investigation shall be whether or not the alleged offender has access to children and whether or not children are at risk such that children need to be protected.
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Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
12-18-103. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1)(A) “Abandonment” means:
(i) The failure of a parent to provide reasonable support and to maintain regular contact with a child through statement or contact when the failure is accompanied by an intention on the part of the parent to permit the condition to continue for an indefinite period in the future or the failure of a parent to support or maintain regular contact with a child without just cause; or
(ii) An articulated intent to forego parental responsibility.
(B) “Abandonment” does not include:
(i) Acts or omissions of a parent toward a married minor; or
(ii) A situation in which a child has disrupted his or her adoption and the adoptive parent has exhausted the available resources;
(2)(A) “Abortion” means the act of using or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman with knowledge that the termination by those means will with reasonable likelihood cause the death of the unborn child.
(B) “Abortion” does not mean the act of using or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy if done with the intent to:
(i) Save the life or preserve the health of the unborn child;
(ii) Remove a dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion; or
(iii) Remove an ectopic pregnancy;
(3)(A) “Abuse” means any of the following acts or omissions by a parent, guardian, custodian, foster parent, person eighteen (18) years of age or older living in the home with a child whether related or unrelated to the child, or any person who is entrusted with the child's care by a parent, guardian, cust
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 12-18-103
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. The source passage cites 12-18-103. This identifies an authority to review, not proof of applicability.