---
title: O.C.G.A. § 20-1-15. Definitions.
collection: code
id: 20-1-15
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 20-1-15 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/20-1-15
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date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
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publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: EDUCATION / GENERAL PROVISIONS / CAREGIVER EDUCATIONAL CONSENT
---

# O.C.G.A. § 20-1-15. Definitions.

As used in this article, the term:

(1) “Child” means any individual under 18 years of age.

(2) “Fictive kin” means an individual who is known to a child as a relative but is not in fact related by blood or marriage to such child and with whom such child has resided or had significant contact.

(3) “Kinship caregiver” means a grandparent, great-grandparent, aunt, uncle, great aunt, great uncle, cousin, sibling, or fictive kin who has assumed responsibility for raising a child in an informal, noncustodial, or guardianship capacity upon the parents or legal custodians of such child:

(A) Losing or abdicating the ability to care for such child; or

(B) Being unable to ensure that the child will attend school for reasons, including, but not limited to:

(i) A parent or legal custodian being unable to provide care due to the death of a parent or legal custodian;

(ii) A serious illness or terminal illness of a parent or legal custodian;

(iii) The physical or mental condition of the parents or legal custodians such that proper care and supervision of the child cannot be provided;

(iv) The incarceration of a parent or legal custodian;

(v) The inability to locate the parents or legal custodians;

(vi) The loss or uninhabitability of the child’s home as the result of a natural disaster; or

(vii) A period of active military duty of the parents or legal custodians exceeding 24 months.

(4) “Legal custodian” means a person who has been awarded permanent custody of a child by court order.

(5) “Parent” means the legal father or the legal mother of a child.

(6) “Reasonable efforts” means actions that a reasonable individual would find sufficient to determine whether one conclusion is more likely than the other.

## History

Code 1981, § 20-1-15, enacted by Ga. L. 2017, p. 113, § 2/SB 186; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1056, § 20/SB 52.