Every year, legislation is proposed that impacts our jobs and the populations we work with. Below is a list of some of bills relevant to DCYF or child safety and well-being from the current session. The list will be adjusted and more detail will be added over the coming weeks.
HB stands for House Bill, SB stands for Senate Bill. Sometimes companion bills are proposed with the same text in both houses. Similar bills can also be proposed that have significant differences in wording or content that must be resolved before they can be passed into law. Find more information here and here.
If you want to make your voice heard on the below legislation, you can read more about our lobby days and other actions here.
The links below direct to the legislature's website, where you can find a bill's status, its text, and, eventually, a report summarizing what the bill does. The official names or descriptions don't always consider the full context or impacts of the bill, and may be inaccurate or incomplete. A bill may sound great in theory, but if it doesn't include funding to hire the workers needed to offset the increase in workload, it may do nothing except make our jobs more stressful and complicated.
HB 1028 - Addressing Child Exposure to Violence
HB 1087 - Expanding the crime of endangerment with a controlled substance to include fentanyl and other high-potency synthetic opioids.
HB 1092 - Maintaining the safety of children.
HB 1159 - Concerning the crime of endangerment with a controlled substance.
HB 1171 - Exempting attorney higher education employees from certain mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect.
HB 1193 - Increasing protections for child welfare workers.
HB 1257 / SB 5253 - Extending special education services to students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which the student turns 22.
HB 1272 - Extending the program to address complex cases of children in crisis.
HB 1286 - Concerning the crime of endangerment with a controlled substance.
HB 1316 - Expanding the scope of programs for postsecondary students experiencing homelessness and former foster youth.
SB 5071 - Updating the endangerment with a controlled substance statute.
SB 5082 - Creating a housing assistance program for youth enrolled in extended foster care.
SB 5149 - Expanding the early childhood court program.
SB 5163 - Modernizing the child fatality statute.
SB 5237 - Concerning leaving a child unattended in a vehicle.
