Senate OKs Child Protective Act

BOISE — The “Child Protective Act,” or “Foster Care Improvement Act” passed an Idaho House panel March 15 with unanimous support. A trailer bill, appropriating $88,000 with $32,000 ongoing, passed the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee March 16.

During the JFAC hearing, committee Co-chair Rep. Maxine Bell said the $88,000 would be “money well spent.”

The legislation is the product of two years of studies by the Foster Care Study Interim Committee and incorporates recommendations made by the Office of Performance Evaluations, bill sponsor Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, told the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee March 15.

“The meat of the bill,” she said, lies in establishing citizen review panels within Idaho Public Health Districts.

Perry said the decision to organize citizen review panels and move them to the health districts was “a true epiphany.”

“One thing that many of us were not aware of, but your public health districts actually work in some of these (child protective) support services already,” Perry said.

She said public health districts are also align with the judicial regions that see child protective cases, creating more cohesion.

Citizen review panels are designed to be independent committees that oversee child protection in their region and look at cases more than 120 days old. The legislation also requires members of each of the seven panels in the state to meet four times a year to discuss regional trends and concerns.

Senate Bill 1234 would additionally establish a legislative oversight committee to continue looking at child protection issues, codify the state’s intent to keep siblings together when possible and require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to investigate when an adult who has been convicted of “lewd and lascivious conduct or felony injury to a child in the past.”

Multiple individuals spoke in favor of S 1341, including three former foster children who said the bill is a step in the right direction.

Nina Rydalch covers the 2018 Idaho Legislature for the University of Idaho McClure Center for Public Policy Research.