§ 10 — Definitions

In this Act: "Abandon" has the same meaning as in the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. "Abused child" has the same meaning as in the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. "Child welfare agency" means an Illinois licensed public or private agency that receives a child for the purpose of placing or arranging for the placement of the child in a foster or pre-adoptive family home or other facility for child care, apart from the custody of the child's parents. "Department" or "DCFS" means the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. "Emergency medical facility" means a freestanding emergency center or trauma center, as defined in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems Act. "Emergency medical professional" includes licensed physicians, and any emergency medical technician, emergency medical technician-intermediate, advanced emergency medical technician, paramedic, trauma nurse specialist, and pre-hospital registered nurse, as defined in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems Act. "Fire station" means a fire station within the State with at least one staff person. "Hospital" has the same meaning as in the Hospital Licensing Act. "Legal custody" means the relationship created by a court order in the best interest of a newborn infant that imposes on the infant's custodian the responsibility of physical possession of the infant, the duty to protect, train, and discipline the infant, and the duty to provide the infant with food, shelter, education, and medical care, except as these are limited by parental rights and responsibilities. "Neglected child" has the same meaning as in the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. "Newborn infant" means a child who a licensed physician reasonably believes is 30 days old or less at the time the child is initially relinquished to a hospital, police station, fire station, or emergency medical facility, and who is not an abused or a neglected child. "Parent" or "biological parent" or "birth parent" means a person who has established maternity or paternity of the newborn infant through genetic testing. "Police station" means a municipal police station, a county sheriff's office, a campus police department located on any college or university owned or controlled by the State or any private college or private university that is not owned or controlled by the State when employees of the campus police department are present, or any of the district headquarters of the Illinois State Police. "Relinquish" means to bring a newborn infant, who a licensed physician reasonably believes is 30 days old or less, to a hospital, police station, fire station, or emergency medical facility and to leave the infant with personnel of the facility, if the person leaving the infant does not express an intent to return for the infant or states that the person will not return for the infant. In the case of a person who gives birth to an infant in a hospital, the person's act of leaving that newborn infant at the hospital (i) without expressing an intent to return for the infant or (ii) stating that the person will not return for the infant is not a "relinquishment" under this Act. "Temporary protective custody" means the temporary placement of a newborn infant within a hospital or other medical facility out of the custody of the infant's parent.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 103-22, eff. 8-8-23; 103-501, eff. 1-1-24; 103-605, eff. 7-1-24.)