Penal Law § 260.15 · Article 260. Offenses Relating to Children, Disabled Persons and Vulnerable Elderly Persons
Endangering the welfare of a child; defense
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 260.15 Endangering the welfare of a child; defense.
In any prosecution for endangering the welfare of a child, pursuant to section 260.10 of this article, based upon an alleged failure or refusal to provide proper medical care or treatment to an ill child, it is an affirmative defense that the defendant (a) is a parent, guardian or other person legally charged with the care or custody of such child; and (b) is a member or adherent of an organized church or religious group the tenets of which prescribe prayer as the principal treatment for illness; and (c) treated or caused such ill child to be treated in accordance with such tenets.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN260.15
- Text hash
- sha256 69828ced678bb7c829234333870ceee1a99f760adb17a38df3c1acdeff8976bf
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
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