Inspired by this thread.
Who is legally obligated to care for a child besides its parents? Are step-parents? A live-in girl/boyfriend? Boy/girlfriend who lives elsewhere? Roommates?
The parents are responsible. In lieu of the parents the responsible person(s) are court appointed guardians. Right now our daughter has lost her parental rights and her children are under the care of the Dept. of Human Services. My wife and I are keeping them as agents of DHS. My wife has gone on errands, so at the moment I am responsible. This means I need to close and go fix peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 
That doesn’t quite answer my question, but thank Og the little PB&Jers have you two.
I think there is no correct answer to your question since it will depend heavily on the jurisdiction as well as the situation. In case of life threatening situations or neglect, I believe some jurisdictions in the US make any adult available automatically responsible. For example, if you see neglect and ignore it, you could potentially be guilty of neglect yourself. IANAL, so YMMV
This was quite the conundrum when Mr. Kitty’s two children were under the age of majority. Technically, since I was their stepmother, I was physically responsible for them when Mr. Kitty or his ex were not around. However, I had no legal standing- there was an incident where one child had to be brought to the ER and I was told that I was not capable of giving consent to the doctors; treatment was delayed until one of the birth parents arrived. I had no standing with their schools (if there was an emergency, I could not take them out of class, although I was on the “emergency contact” list), their extra-curricular activities, or anything else that requires parental consent. But I guarantee that if I hadn’t dropped everything and taken my stepchild to the ER, there would have been hell to pay. Extremely frustrating, and even more so for custodial step-parents.
Teachers, counselors, and doctors are mandated reporters if they suspect abuse, and can be prosecuted if they fail in that regard, but I don’t know if that’s exactly what you’re asking.
Are you asking legally or ethically?
Ethically, I think the answer is “everyone present or who has knowledge of the situation is ethically bound to help anyone, child or adult, at risk of life, limb or property unless the person needing aid has released them of that obligation through informed consent.” By my own ethical compass, at least.
I see it as a a bizarre and improbable mish-mash of libertarianism combined with social safety nets. It’s hard to articulate consistently, and no, I don’t know how to pay for it. It’s one of those utopian ethics, of course. Only if everyone worked off the same rubrick would it work, and only then would the world be a nicer place than it is now.
Am I a commie pinko bastard? Perhaps. So be it.
bobkitty, the only bright side to tales like that is. “well, at least it wasn’t a life threatening emergency.” If it’s life threatening, the ER doesn’t need anyone’s consent to treat a minor. They’ll do what needs to be done and sort the paperwork out later. But it sucks to just be sitting there feeling impotent. We have a letter we hand to all grandparents and babysitters with our insurance information Xeroxed on it authorizing them to authorize medical tests and procedures in our absence, for this very reason. It’s been used twice in twelve years, and saved everyone a lot of grief.
It also depends on what you mean by “legally obligated”. A person might be legally obligated in that if they don’t care for the child they are criminally responsible, or they might be liable in a civil lawsuit or they might be legally obligated in the sense that a neglect or abuse finding can be made against them. Those obligations don’t necessarily apply to the same people. For example, I’m fairly certain that a teacher who fails to properly supervise a child on a field trip causing the child’s death could be held criminally responsible for endangering the childs welfare. I’m certain the teacher and/or the school district could be successfully sued. However, when I worked in CPS, the teacher could not have been listed as a perpetrator on a neglect report, as the perpetrator had to be an adult regularly present in the child’s household. Any adult regularly present in the child’s household.
I’ve often wondered the same thing about the sort of situation that you see in a movie or on TV sometimes: a self-centered young partygoing type suddenly finds himself or herself having to make major lifestyle changes because somebody shows up at their swingin’ bachelor[ette] pad one day and informs them that J. Random Relative has died and, in a fit of irresponsibility, has “left them the kids.” That couldn’t actually happen in real life, right? I mean, you can’t just suddenly be legally responsible for the four diaper-wearing children of your long-lost stepcousin Tammy because she put that in her will … right? You have to actually consent to it at some point, and some social worker would have to make sure you’re not a convicted child molester or crackhead, right?
In the case of the the field trip, the teacher is responsible under the legal doctrine of in loco parentis. Neglect is different since it is ongoing and the school is not responsible for clothing, food outside of school, shelter, etc. Daycares and preschools take over responsibility by written contract and I assume that an oral contract (in terms of caretaking) applies if someone agrees to watch your child while you run an errand for example.
Not necessarily. In Texas public schools, the school district and its employees are immune from lawsuits. The only exceptions involve corporal punishment (teacher beats child) or events involving a motor vehicle. Of course, if a teacher commits a crime, that’s a different matter. Teachers can be prosecuted for criminal acts. They cannot, however, be found civilly liable for events in school. If a student trips over a drumstick lying on my classroom floor, hits his head and dies, I cannot be sued for this unfortunate event. (Well, I can be sued, but it will get tossed out.) Now, if I carefully set a trap and the kid dies as a result, that is a criminal act and I can be prosecuted. My principal, however, cannot be successfully sued for allowing a murderer to work in the school.
Nevertheless, I take my responsibility to care for the students quite seriously.