| Priority Bill Updates |
HB1085: Termination of parent-child relationship; CHINS
HB1157: Select join commission on child welfare services oversight
HB1167: Placement of children outside Indiana
HB1193: Juvenile, education, and law enforcement matters
HB1276: Release of records, HIV testing, and judicial technology
SB0062: Removal of FSSA expiration date
SB0140: Adoption matters
SB0149: Department of child services
SB0316: Dating violence
SB0389: Information on individual development accounts
- Provides that reasonable efforts to reunify a child with the child's parent, guardian, or custodian or to preserve a child's family are not required with respect to a child who has been adjudicated a child in need of services (CHINS) if the court finds that the child has, on two separate occasions, been adjudicated a child in need of services because of an act or omission by the child's parent, guardian, or custodian.
HB1157: Select join commission on child welfare services oversight
- Establishes the Select Joint Commission on Child Welfare Services Oversight. The commission is comprised of 12 voting members, in which 6 are appointed by the Senate and 6 appointed by the House of Representatives.
- The commission is responsible for the following:
- Determining if CHINS and juveniles adjudicated delinquent are receiving quality appropriate services,
- Determining if children in Indiana have appropriate levels of placement in all geographic areas,
- Oversee efforts to maximize federal reimbursement and other funding mechanisms for the care of children,
- Receive reports from the Department of Child Services Ombudsman to respond to trends and issues outlined in the reports,
- Study and investigate any other issues related to child welfare and make recommendations for legislation.
HB1167: Placement of children outside Indiana
- Removes a provision that states the Department of Child Services is responsible for payment of any costs or expenses for housing or services provided to or for the benefit of a child placed by a juvenile court in a home or facility located outside Indiana.
- Provides that the department is responsible for these costs and expenses if a juvenile court places a child in a home or facility that is located outside Indiana and the:
- Juvenile court makes written findings based on clear and convincing evidence that the out-of-state placement is appropriate because there is not a comparable facility with adequate services located in Indiana or the location of the home or facility is within a distance not greater than 50 miles from the county of residence of the child; or
- Placement is recommended or approved by the director of the department or the director's designee.
HB1193: Juvenile, education, and law enforcement matters
- Creates the law enforcement, school policing, and youth work group to be staffed and administered by the criminal justice institute.
- Requires each school corporation to annually submit a report to the department of education concerning: (1) student arrests; (2) the use of school corporation police departments and security guards; and (3) whether the school corporation has an agreement with a law enforcement agency concerning arresting students on school corporation property.
- Requires the Department of Education to post the reports on its web site and deliver the report to specific government agencies and working groups.
HB1276: Release of records, HIV testing, and judicial technology
- Specifies that: (1) records concerning communicable diseases may be disclosed; and (2) patient records that have been classified as confidential are not required to be made available for inspection after 75 years
- Requires the release of certain mental health care information in certain circumstances and provides for civil immunity for the person releasing the information.
- Provides that if a victim of certain crimes requests that a defendant be tested for HIV, the defendant must be tested.
- Requires the Division of State Court Administration to annually report to the commission on courts regarding: (1) the implementation of the judicial technology and automation project (JTAP); and (2) statistics complied by JTAP regarding the number of dissolution of marriage decrees in Indiana entered in the previous year.
SB0062: Removal of FSSA expiration date
- Removes the expiration dates for the office of the secretary of family and social services, the office of Medicaid policy and planning, the statutes concerning directors of divisions within family and social services (FSSA), and certain advisory committees under the FSSA statutes.
SB0140: Adoption matters
- Provides that a man who is barred from establishing paternity under the adoption statutes is prohibited from establishing paternity by filing a paternity action as next friend of the child or requesting a prosecuting attorney to file a paternity action.
- Prohibits a person who has a written consent to the adoption of a child from executing a second or subsequent written consent to the adoption of the child by another person, unless certain conditions apply.
- Removes provision that allows a father who receives a notice of adoption after the birth of the child to contest the adoption by filing a paternity action.
- Removes provision under which the consent of a putative father to the adoption of a child is implied if the putative father, after receiving a notice of adoption fails to file a paternity action.
- Provides that a putative father's motion to contest an adoption must be filed in the court in which the adoption is pending.
- Prohibits a court from granting an adoption if a petitioner for adoption has been convicted of an attempt to commit certain felonies.
- Authorizes a child placing agency and an attorney to advertise certain adoption information only if licensed under Indiana law.
- Provides that the crime of unauthorized adoption facilitation does not apply to child placing agencies licensed under Indiana law or attorneys licensed to practice law in Indiana.
SB0149: Department of child services
- Removes the Department of Child Services (DCS) as an entity that must be forwarded all petitions for adoption.
- Removes language regarding a child protection team being required to provide diagnostic and prognostic services for DCS or a juvenile court.
- Specifies how a child's death or near fatality may be determined to have been the result of abuse, abandonment, or neglect.
- Adds additional information required in a petition for the appointment of a guardian for an incapacitated person or minor and requires DCS be notified in situations where the child currently is or has been a CHINS. It also allows the court to provide certain requirements to be fulfilled by the parents to regain custody at a later date.
- Provides that DCS may petition a court if a parent, guardian, or custodian refuses to allow a child to be interviewed.
- Prohibits the state police department from charging a fee for: (1) fingerprinting expenses related to criminal history checks conducted by the department; and (2) certain limited criminal history background checks conducted by the department. Requires juvenile courts or the department to pay the Federal Bureau of Investigation for costs of certain fingerprinting.
- Provides that if a juvenile court issues an order: (1) establishing or modifying a guardianship; (2) modifying child custody or visitation; or (3) creating or modifying the establishment of paternity; the court in which the original action was filed, or an appropriate court, shall assume primary jurisdiction and shall conduct additional proceedings.
- Adds child caring institutions, group homes, private secure facilities and child placing agencies to the list of entities that may submit a report of suspected child abuse or neglect and then later receive a report from DCS regarding the investigation of the report.
- Removes a provision that states the department is responsible for payment of any costs or expenses for housing or services provided to or for the benefit of a child placed by a juvenile court in a home or facility located outside Indiana only if the director of the department or the director's designee recommends or approves the placement.
SB0316: Dating violence
- Requires the Department of Education, in collaboration with specified organizations, to develop or identify model dating violence educational materials and a model for dating violence response policies and reporting.
- Requires the Department of Education to make the model dating violence educational materials and model for dating violence response policies developed or identified available to assist schools with the implementation of dating violence education programs and dating violence response polices by July 1, 2011.
SB0389: Information on individual development accounts
- Requires a caseworker of a foster child to provide information to the child concerning individual development accounts.
