Idaho HB 522

Here is the bill: House Bill 522

“Emotions ran high Monday afternoon as House Bill 522 went before the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee. The bill, with a few amendments, passed through the committee on a unanimous vote. It now heads to the House floor.

“This is an issue the public has been highly engaged in,” said Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, who presented the bill that sets out to reform Idaho’s foster care system in three key areas.

First, it aims to restore judicial oversight to the Department of Health and Welfare’s decisions regarding foster children. Next, the bill would to create a time frame in which birth families must act to adopt a child in foster care. Finally, the bill makes it more difficult for Health and Welfare to move children from foster home to foster home unless there is an emergency situation or safety concern.

One by one, the committee heard testimony, oftentimes emotional, from foster parents  sharing their experiences with the state’s system as it stands now.

“Despite being the only parents that our younger son has ever known and despite that our older son who had major neglect and abandonment issues has finally begun to trust again we were no longer an option because we are not their biological relative,” said Jeff Roberts, a foster parent.

“How do I make a little boy understand my love when to him that just means to have me as a mama simply means he has suffered a loss?” said Danielle, also a foster parent.

The hearing lasted nearly five hours with committee member Rep. Melissa Wintrow saying that this was the toughest hearing she’d ever sat through.

A department spokesman for Health and Welfare said he opposed the bill and suggested that instead of moving forward with the legislation, that all parties get together to talk about these issues.

“The bill is probably not perfect – we’re still trying to work on a few things here but it’s really important that we move it forward over to the other side of the rotunda,” said Rep. Perry.

The committee chairman said at the end of the hearing that this bill is not about a department or an agency being at fault, it’s about doing what is best for the child.”

Foster care reform bill heads to House floor [KTVB 3/1/16 by Shannon Camp]

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