Riley, J.
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Mother raises four issues on appeal, which we consolidate and restate as the following two issues:
1) Whether the trial court erred when it determined that Ju.L. and Je.L. were CHINS pursuant to a statute not cited in the CHINS petition; and
(2) Whether the trial court erred in its findings of fact and conclusions of law.
….
Mother’s primary contention in regards to the abuse and neglect statutes is that DCS did not adequately provide her with notice of the grounds DCS would use to allege that Ju.L. and Je.L. were CHINS. Specifically, in its petition, DCS alleged that:
The children are [CHINS] as defined in I.C. [§] 31-34-1 in that the children’s physical or mental condition is seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal, or neglect of a parent, guardian or custodian to supply the children with necessary food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, or supervision; and the children need care, treatment, or rehabilitation that the children are not receiving and are unlikely to be provided or accepted without the coercive intervention of the [c]ourt….
(Appellant’s App. p. 79). In this paragraph, DCS cited I.C. § 31-34-1 generally, which encompasses both the neglect and abuse statutes, but included language mirroring the language of the neglect statute. In contrast, the trial court eventually decided that Ju.L. and Je.L. were CHINS according to the criteria listed in the abuse statute. On appeal, Mother contends that, because the language in the paragraph mirrored the language of the neglect statute, she did not have notice that the trial court would also consider the criteria codified in the abuse statute. In response, DCS notes that it also alleged in paragraph 5(A) of its petition that:
On or about February 11, 2010, [DCS] determined, by its Family Case Manager (FCM) Tracey Pendleton, the children to be children in need of services because [Mother] has failed to provide the children with a safe and appropriate living environment. The children have been exposed to numerous physical exams and interviews due to [Mother’s] repeated claims against [Father]. All the reports made against [Father] have been unsubstantiated. Dr. Roberta Hibbard expressed concern regarding the unusual, bizarre complaints of sexual assault and stated that the repeated exams are concerning as they are likely unnecessary and could be harmful intervention of the [c]ourt is necessary to ensure the children’s safety and well-being.
(Appellant’s App. p. 80). According to DCS, this paragraph put Mother on notice that the abuse statute was also a ground for the petition because her acts towards the children were also at issue.
The question of notice in a CHINS petition is governed by Indiana Code section 31-34-9-3, which establishes the requirements for the contents of a CHINS petition. Under I.C. § 31-34-9-3, a CHINS petition must contain both “[a] citation to the provision of juvenile law that gives the juvenile court jurisdiction in the proceeding” and “[a] concise statement of the facts upon which the allegations are based, including the date and location at which the alleged facts occurred.” We have interpreted these provisions as necessary to provide a parent, custodian, or guardian with proper notice in a CHINS proceeding so that the parent or guardian may refute the assertions. Maybaum v. Putnam Cnty. Office of Family & Children, 723 N.E.2d 951, 954 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000). This is, in part, “because we have long recognized that parental rights have [a] constitutional dimension.” Id. However, we have also held that issues not raised by the pleadings may be tried by the express or implied consent of the parties. In re V.C., 867 N.E.2d 167, 178-79 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).
In V.C., we addressed the issue of whether the trial court may adjudicate a child a CHINS on grounds different from those alleged in a CHINS petition. Id. at 177. There, DCS filed a CHINS petition alleging that V.C. was a CHINS because V.C.’s mother had failed to protect her from molestation. Id. The trial court ultimately concluded, however, that V.C. was a CHINS because her mother’s acts and omissions had seriously endangered her physical and mental health. Id.
On appeal, we analyzed Ind. Trial Rule 15(B) to determine whether the trial court erred by finding V.C. a CHINS based on different grounds than those alleged in the petition. Id. T.R. 15(B) provides that:
….
After reviewing T.R. 15(B), we further elaborated in V.C. that:
The function of the issues, whether formed by the pleadings, pre-trial orders, or contentions of the parties, is to provide a guide for the parties and the court, as they proceed through trial. Either party may demand strict adherence to the issues raised before trial. If the trial court allows introduction of an issue not raised before trial, an objecting party may seek a reasonable continuance in order to prepare to litigate the new issue. However, where the trial ends without objection to the new issue, the evidence actually presented at trial controls. Consequently, neither pleadings, pre-trial orders, nor theories proposed by the parties should frustrate the trier of fact from finding the facts that a preponderance of the evidence permits.
Because fairness compels certain restraints, however, there are limits upon the principle of amending pleadings through implied consent. For example, a party is entitled to some form of notice that an issue that was not pleaded is before the court. Notice can be overt, as where the unpleaded issue is expressly raised prior to or sometime during the trial but before the close of the evidence, or implied, as where the evidence presented at trial is such that a reasonably competent attorney would have recognized that the unpleaded issue was being litigated.
In Re V.C., 867 N.E.2d at 178 (internal citations omitted) (emphasis added). When we applied this standard to V.C.’s circumstances, we determined that V.C.’s mother did have adequate implied notice that evidence would be presented that her acts or omissions were endangering V.C.’s physical and mental health. Id. Our reasoning was that V.C.’s father had asked DCS to amend the CHINS petition to allege that V.C. was a CHINS because V.C.’s mother was endangering V.C.’s mental health. Id. This action constituted sufficient notice, even though—as in the instant case— DCS never amended the petition. Id.
In contrast, Mother here cites Maybaum in support of her arguments that the petition was insufficient to put her on notice. In Maybaum, the Putnam County Office of Family & Children (OFC) alleged that P.M. was a victim of a sex offense at the hands of her father under I.C. § 31-34-1-3, but the trial court ultimately held that P.M. was a CHINS under I.C. § 31-34-1-2 because P.M.’s father had failed to protect her from injury. Maybaum, 723 N.E.2d at 953. On appeal, we determined that “implied consent will not be found if the parties did not know or could not have known that the unpleaded issue was being litigated.” Id. at 955. We reviewed the record and determined that the OFC did not “present any specific evidence which would have placed the Maybaums’ attorney on notice that it was attempting to show that one of P.M.’s siblings or another person, not P.M.’s father, caused P.M.’s penetrating injury.” Id. As a result, we concluded that the trial court erred in holding that P.M. was a CHINS on grounds different than those alleged in the OFC’s petition. Id.
Here, we conclude that our decision in V.C. is more applicable to the facts of this case than our decision in Maybaum because DCS did provide Mother with implied notice that her acts and omissions could be grounds for the CHINS proceeding under the abuse statute. In paragraph 5(A) of DCS’s petition, DCS stated that
[Mother] has failed to provide the children with a safe and appropriate living environment. The children have been exposed to numerous physical exams and interviews due to [Mother’s] repeated claims against [Father]. All the reports made against [Father] have been unsubstantiated. Dr. Roberta Hibbard expressed concern regarding the unusual, bizarre complaints of sexual assault and stated that the repeated exams are concerning as they are likely unnecessary and could be harmful to the children.
(Appellants App. p. 80). This language implicates the language of the abuse statute, which establishes that a child is a CHINS if “the child’s physical or mental health is seriously endangered due to injury by the act or omission of the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian.” I.C. § 31-34-1-2. Moreover, as we determined in S.W., factual allegations in a CHINS petition may suffice to put a parent on notice that the factual allegations could be at issue in a CHINS proceeding. In re S.W., 920 N.E.2d 783 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010). Therefore, it is not relevant that paragraph 5(A) is a statement of factual allegations rather than the trial court’s legal jurisdiction.
Mother contends, though, that V.C. is not applicable because V.C.’s mother did not object at trial to the litigation on the grounds not listed in the CHINS petition, whereas Mother here did object. We do not find this argument persuasive because we find that the controlling factor in V.C. was the issue of notice, not whether the parties objected to the trial court’s adjudication of the alternate grounds. Our interpretation prevents parties from pleading ignorance where adequate notice is given. As we stated in V.C., implied notice exists where “a reasonably competent attorney would have recognized that the unpleaded issue was being litigated.” In re V.C., 867 N.E.2d at 178 (emphasis added). In further support of this interpretation, we note that in V.C. we did not even address the issue of whether V.C.’s mother had objected when we analyzed whether the trial court had properly decided that V.C. was a CHINS based on a different ground than that listed in the petition. We merely addressed the issue of notice. In sum, we conclude that the DCS provided Mother with adequate notice.
DARDEN, J., and BARNES, J., concur.