Tenn. Code Ann. § 37-1-102 (2026)

• (a) As used in this chapter, any reference to the department of correction is construed to mean the department of children's services, unless the reference is clearly intended to designate the department of correction.

• (b) As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
  • (1) "Abuse" exists when:
    • (A) A person under eighteen (18) years of age is suffering from, has sustained, or may be in immediate danger of suffering from or sustaining a wound, injury, disability, or physical or mental condition caused by brutality, neglect, use of force, extreme or repeated cruelty, or other actions or inactions of a parent, relative, guardian, or caregiver; or
    • (B) A person under eighteen (18) years of age is suffering from, has sustained, or may be in immediate danger of suffering from or sustaining child sexual abuse, as defined in § 37-1-602, by the actions or inactions of a parent, relative, guardian, or caregiver;
  • (2) "Administrative hearing" is an action by the judge or magistrate of the juvenile court in conformity with legislative intent in terminating the home placement of a juvenile;
  • (3) "Adult" means any person eighteen (18) years of age or older;
  • (4) "Caregiver" means any relative or other person living, visiting, or working in the child's home who supervises or otherwise provides care or assistance for the child, such as a babysitter, or who is an employee or volunteer with the responsibility for any child at an educational, recreational, medical, religious, therapeutic, or other setting where children are present. "Caregiver" may also include a person who has allegedly used the child for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation of a minor or trafficking a minor for a commercial sex act, including, but not limited to, as a trafficker. For purposes of this chapter, "caregiver" and "caretaker" shall have the same meaning;
  • (5) "Child" means:
    • (A) A person under eighteen (18) years of age; or
    • (B) A person under nineteen (19) years of age for the limited purpose of:
      • (i) Remaining under the continuing jurisdiction of the juvenile court to enforce a non-custodial order of disposition entered prior to the person's eighteenth birthday;
      • (ii) Remaining under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for the purpose of being committed, or completing commitment including completion of home placement supervision, to the department of children's services with such commitment based on an adjudication of delinquency for an offense that occurred prior to the person's eighteenth birthday; or
      • (iii) Remaining under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for resolution of a delinquent offense or offenses committed prior to a person's eighteenth birthday but considered by the juvenile court after a person's eighteenth birthday with the court having the option of retaining jurisdiction for adjudication and disposition or transferring the person to criminal court under § 37-1-134;
    • (C) A person under twenty-four (24) years of age for the limited purpose of remaining under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court while serving a sentence as a serious youthful offender pursuant to § 37-1-131(g);
    • (D) In no event shall a person eighteen (18) years of age or older be committed to or remain in the custody of the department of children's services by virtue of being adjudicated dependent and neglected, unruly or in need of services pursuant to § 37-1-175, except as provided in 37-5-106(a)(20);
    • (E) This subdivision (b)(5) shall in no way be construed as limiting the court's jurisdiction to transfer a person to criminal court under § 37-1-134;
    • (F) A person eighteen (18) years of age is legally an adult for all other purposes including, but not limited to, enforcement of the court's orders under this subsection (b) through its contempt power under § 37-1-158;
    • (G) No exception shall be made for a child who may be emancipated by marriage or otherwise; and
    • (H) A person over the age of eighteen (18) shall be allowed to remain under the continuing jurisdiction of the juvenile court for purposes of the voluntary extension of services pursuant to § 37-2-604;
  • (6) "Commissioner" means commissioner of children's services;
  • (7) "Court order" means any order or decree of a judge, magistrate or court of competent jurisdiction. A "valid court order" is one that is authorized by law, and any order entered in the minutes of a court of record is presumed to be valid;
  • (8) "Custodian" means a person, other than a parent or legal guardian, who stands in loco parentis to the child or a person to whom temporary legal custody of the child has been given by order of a court;
  • (9) "Custody" means the control of actual physical care of the child and includes the right and responsibility to provide for the physical, mental, moral and emotional well-being of the child. "Custody," as herein defined, relates to those rights and responsibilities as exercised either by the parents or by a person or organization granted custody by a court of competent jurisdiction. "Custody" shall not be construed as the termination of parental rights set forth in § 37-1-147. "Custody" does not exist by virtue of mere physical possession of the child;
  • (10) "Delinquent act" means an act designated a crime under the law, including local ordinances of this state, or of another state if the act occurred in that state, or under federal law, and the crime is not a status offense under subdivision (b)(32)(C) and the crime is not a traffic offense as defined in the traffic code of the state other than failing to stop when involved in an accident pursuant to § 55-10-101, driving while under the influence of an intoxicant or drug, vehicular homicide or any other traffic offense classified as a felony;
  • (11) "Delinquent child" means a child who has committed a delinquent act and is in need of treatment or rehabilitation;
  • (12) "Department" means the department of children's services;
  • (13) "Dependent and neglected child" means a child at the time of the filing of the petition:
    • (A) Who is without a parent, guardian or legal custodian;
    • (B) Whose parent, guardian or person with whom the child lives, by reason of cruelty, mental incapacity, immorality or depravity is unfit to properly care for such child;
    • (C) Who is under unlawful or improper care, supervision, custody or restraint by any person, corporation, agency, association, institution, society or other organization or who is unlawfully kept out of school;
    • (D) Whose parent, guardian or custodian neglects or refuses to provide necessary medical, surgical, institutional or hospital care for such child;
    • (E) Who, because of lack of proper supervision, is found in any place the existence of which is in violation of law;
    • (F) Who is in such condition of want or suffering or is under such improper guardianship or control as to injure or endanger the morals or health of such child or others;
    • (G) Who is suffering from abuse or neglect;
    • (H) Who has been in the care and control of one (1) or more agency or person not related to such child by blood or marriage for a continuous period of six (6) months or longer in the absence of a power of attorney or court order, and such person or agency has not initiated judicial proceedings seeking either legal custody or adoption of the child;
    • (I) Who is or has been allowed, encouraged or permitted to engage in prostitution or obscene or pornographic photographing, filming, posing, or similar activity and whose parent, guardian or other custodian neglects or refuses to protect such child from further such activity; or
    • (J)
      • (i) Who has willfully been left in the sole financial care and sole physical care of a related caregiver for not less than eighteen (18) consecutive months by the child's parent, parents or legal custodian to the related caregiver, and the child will suffer substantial harm if removed from the continuous care of such relative;
      • (ii) For the purposes of this subdivision (b)(13)(J):
        • (a) A related caregiver shall include the child's biological, step or legal grandparent, great grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle or any other person who is legally or biologically related to the child; and
        • (b) A child willfully left with a related caregiver as defined in subdivision (b)(13)(J)(ii)(a) because of the parent's military service shall not be subject to action pursuant to § 37-1-183;
  • (14) "Detention" means temporary confinement in a secure or closed type of facility that is under the direction or supervision of the court or a facility that is designated by the court or other authority as a place of confinement for juveniles;
  • (15) "Evidence-based" means policies, procedures, programs, and practices demonstrated by scientific research to reliably produce reductions in recidivism or has been rated as effective by a standardized program evaluation tool;
  • (16) "Financial obligations" means fines, fees, costs, surcharges, child support, or other monetary liabilities ordered or assessed by any court or state or county government, but does not include restitution;
  • (17) "Foster care" means the temporary placement of a child in the custody of the department of children's services or any agency or institution, whether public or private, for care outside the home of a parent or relative, by blood or marriage, of the child, whether the placement is by court order, voluntary placement agreement, surrender of parental rights or otherwise;
  • (18) "Foster parent" means, for purposes other than § 37-2-414, a person who has been trained and approved by the department or licensed child-placing agency to provide full-time temporary out-of-home care at a private residence for a child or children who have been placed in foster care, or in the case of a child or children placed for adoption, a person who has provided care for the child or children for a period of six (6) months or longer in the absence of a power of attorney or court order;
  • (19) "Juvenile court" means the general sessions court in all counties of this state, except in those counties and municipalities in which special juvenile courts are provided by law, and "judge" means judge of the juvenile court;
  • (20) "Nonjudicial days" means Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Nonjudicial days begin at four thirty p.m. (4:30 p.m.) on the day preceding a weekend or holiday, and end at eight o'clock a.m. (8:00 a.m.) on the day after a weekend or holiday;
  • (21) "Positive behavior" means prosocial behavior or progress in a treatment program or on supervision;
  • (22) "Preliminary inquiry" means the process established by the Rules of Juvenile Practice and Procedure that is used to commence proceedings and to resolve complaints by excluding certain matters from juvenile court at their inception;
  • (23) "Probation" means casework service as directed by the court and pursuant to this part as a measure for the protection, guidance, and well-being of the child and child's family;
  • (24) "Protective supervision" means supervision ordered by the court of children found to be dependent or neglected or unruly;
  • (25) "Restitution" means compensation that is accomplished through actual monetary payment to the victim of the offense by the child who committed the offense, or symbolically, through unpaid community service work by the child, for property damage or loss incurred as a result of the delinquent offense;
  • (26) "Seclusion" means the involuntary segregation of a child from the rest of the resident population regardless of the reason for the segregation, including confinement to a locked unit or ward where other children may be seen or heard but are separated from the child, but does not include:
    • (A) The segregation of a child for the purpose of managing biological contagion consistent with the centers for disease control and prevention guidelines;
    • (B) Voluntary time-out involving the voluntary separation of an individual child from others, and where the child is allowed to end the separation at will; or
    • (C) Temporarily securing children in their rooms during regularly scheduled times, such as periods set aside for sleep or regularly scheduled down time, that are universally applicable to the entire population or within the child's assigned living area;
  • (27) "Severe child abuse" means:
    • (A)
      • (i) Exposure of a child to serious bodily injury or death, or the risk of serious bodily injury or death, caused by brutality, abuse, neglect, or use of force; and
      • (ii) As used in this subdivision (b)(27)(A), "serious bodily injury" has the same meaning as "serious bodily injury to the child" given in § 39-15-402;
    • (B) Specific brutality, abuse, or neglect toward a child that in the opinion of a qualified expert has caused or will reasonably be expected to produce severe psychosis, severe neurotic disorder, severe depression, severe developmental delay or intellectual disability, or severe impairment of the child's ability to function adequately in the child's environment;
    • (C) The commission of an act toward the child prohibited by §§ 39-13-307-39-13-309, §§ 39-13-502-39-13-504, § 39-13-514(b)(3)(A), § 39-13-515, § 39-13-522, § 39-13-527, § 39-13-531, § 39-13-532, § 39-15-302, § 39-15-402, § 39-17-1004, or § 39-17-1005;
    • (D) The presence of a child within a structure where the act of creating methamphetamine, as that substance is identified in § 39-17-408, is occurring;
    • (E) The ingestion of an illegal substance or a controlled substance by a child under eight (8) years of age that results in the child testing positive on a drug screen, except as legally prescribed to the child; or
    • (F) The presence of a child within a structure where any of the following controlled substances are present and accessible to the child:
      • (i) A schedule I controlled substance listed in § 39-17-406;
      • (ii) Cocaine;
      • (iii) Methamphetamine; or
      • (iv) Fentanyl;
  • (28) "Sexual activity" has the same meaning given in § 39-17-1002;
  • (29) "Sexually explicit image" means a lewd or lascivious visual depiction of a minor's genitals, pubic area, breast or buttocks, or nudity, if such nudity is depicted for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any person who might view such nudity;
  • (30) "Shelter care" means temporary care of a child in physically unrestricted facilities;
  • (31) "Significant injury" means bodily injury, including a cut, abrasion, bruise, burn, or disfigurement, and physical pain or temporary illness or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty, involving:
    • (A) A substantial risk of death;
    • (B) Protracted unconsciousness;
    • (C) Extreme physical pain;
    • (D) Protracted or obvious disfigurement; or
    • (E) Protracted loss or substantial impairment of a function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty;
  • (32) "Telecommunication device" has the same meaning as defined in § 39-16-201;
  • (33) "Unruly child" means a child in need of treatment and rehabilitation who:
    • (A) Habitually and without justification is truant from school while subject to compulsory school attendance under § 49-6-3007;
    • (B) Habitually is disobedient of the reasonable and lawful commands of the child's parent(s), guardian or other legal custodian to the degree that such child's health and safety are endangered;
    • (C) Commits an offense that is applicable only to a child; or
    • (D) Is away from the home, residence or any other residential placement of the child's parent(s), guardian or other legal custodian without their consent. Such child shall be known and defined as a "runaway"; and
  • (34) "Validated risk and needs assessment" means a determination of a child's risk to reoffend and the needs that, when addressed, reduce the child's risk to reoffend through the use of an actuarial assessment tool that assesses the dynamic and static factors that predict delinquent behavior.

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 1007,s 1, eff. 1/1/2025, app. to all costs submitted for reimbursement on or after July 1, 2011.

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 862,s 1, eff. 7/1/2024.

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 613,s 10, eff. 7/1/2024.

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 613,s 5, eff. 7/1/2024.

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 613,s 6, eff. 7/1/2024.

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 574,s 1, eff. 7/1/2024.

Amended by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 363, s 7, eff. 5/5/2023.

Amended by 2022 Tenn. Acts, ch. 937, s 1, eff. 7/1/2022.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 508, s 1, eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 147, s 2, eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 492, s 2, eff. 5/25/2021.

Amended by 2019 Tenn. Acts, ch. 510, s 4, eff. 6/3/2019.

Amended by 2019 Tenn. Acts, ch. 36, s 19, eff. 7/1/2019.

Amended by 2018 Tenn. Acts, ch. 1052, Secs.s 4, s 5 eff. 7/1/2018.

Amended by 2018 Tenn. Acts, ch. 1052, s 3, eff. 7/1/2018.

Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 367, s 2, eff. 7/1/2017.

Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 292, s 2, eff. 7/1/2017.

Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 292, s 1, eff. 7/1/2017.

Amended by 2016 Tenn. Acts, ch. 979, s 4, eff. 7/1/2016.

Amended by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 711, s 1, eff. 7/1/2014.

Acts 1970, ch. 600, § 2; 1973, ch. 81, § 3; 1975, ch. 326, § 1; 1976, ch. 425, § 1; 1977, ch. 87, § 1; 1977, ch. 482, § 1; 1978, ch. 543, § 1; 1978, ch. 704, § 3; 1979, ch. 271, § 1; 1979, ch. 289, § 2; 1980, ch. 796, § 1; 1980, ch. 838, § 3; 1981, ch. 120, § 1; 1981, ch. 316, §§ 1, 3; 1982, ch. 882, § 4; 1982, ch. 934, § 16; 1983, ch. 9, § 1; 1983, ch. 254, § 1; 1983, ch. 435, § 2; T.C.A., § 37-202; Acts 1984, ch. 789, § 5; 1985, ch. 441, § 1; 1985, ch. 478, § 30; 1989, ch. 278, §§ 29, 77; 1990, ch. 988, § 2; 1993, ch. 276, § 1; 1995, ch. 532, §§ 4-6; 1996, ch. 1079, §§ 73, 77-84, 183; 2000, ch. 947, § 8G; 2002, ch. 868, § 1; 2009 , ch. 235, § 1; 2009 , ch. 411, §§ 5-8, 10; 2010 , ch. 1065, § 4; 2011 , ch. 158, § 19; 2011 , ch. 314, §§ 3, 4; 2011 , ch. 486, § 1; 2012 , ch. 653, § 1.