Legislative Update

Child services

Filed Under: Juvenile

S.E.A. 447, P.L. 183
Effective: July 1, 2017

  • Requires child abuse and neglect training for school employees.
  • Allows the Department of Child Services (department) to share costs incurred in maintaining the new hire directory in accordance with federal law with the Department of Workforce Development.
  • Adds a definition of “concurrent planning”. Adds a definition of “nonwaivable offense” and makes conforming changes.
  • Allows the department to pay the criminal background check fee in certain adoption cases.
  • Prohibits the department from charging a fee for state tax offsets.
  • Amends provisions concerning restricted driving licenses suspended under Title IV-D.
  • Provides that the department may not grant a variance or waiver of a ruleto an applicant for a: (1) child care institution; (2) foster family home; (3) group home; or (4) child placing agency; license if the applicant has been convicted of certain felonies.
  • Requires that a criminal history check be conducted on all members of the household of an applicant for a foster family home license. (Current law requires a criminal history check of household members 14 years of age or older.)
  • Amends provisions governing sharing of jurisdiction between: (1) a court that has jurisdiction over a child in a marriage dissolution or paternity action; and (2) another court hearing a delinquency or child in need of services proceeding regarding the child.
  • Permits a juvenile court to authorize drug and alcohol testing of a child under certain circumstances.
  • Requires an individual who is required to make a report of abuse or neglect in the individual’s capacity as a member of the staff of a hospital licensed under IC 16-21-2 to first notify the individual in charge of the hospital or the designated agent of the individual in charge of the hospital.
  • Prohibits a public or nonpublic school, school corporation, facility, or agency from establishing a policy restricting an employee’s duty to report suspected child abuse or neglect. Adds a written report as a means to report suspected child abuse or neglect.
  • Amends a requirement that the department must notify the United States Department of Defense Family Advocacy Program (Program) regarding a substantiated investigation of abuse or neglect of a child of an active duty military member, to provide that the department must notify the Program upon request.
  • Provides that a child: (1) who lives in the same household as another child who is a child in need of services because the other child is a victim of specified offenses; and (2) regarding whom a caseworker makes specified determinations; is a child in need of services.
  • Provides that a child who: (1) is born with: (A) neonatal abstinence syndrome; or (B) a controlled substance, legend drug, or metabolite of a controlled substance or legend drug in the child’s body, including in the child’s blood, urine, umbilical cord tissue, or meconium; and (2) needs care, treatment, or rehabilitation the child is not receiving or unlikely to receive without court intervention; is a child in need of services, and establishes a rebuttable presumption that the conditions regarding the child’s care, treatment, or rehabilitation are met if evidence exists that the child’s mother used a controlled substance or a legend drug during pregnancy. [Amended by S.E.A. 1342 to remove the rebuttable presumption]
  • Provides that a child in need of services may be placed in a residence at which a person who has been convicted of battery (rather than battery only as a felony, as provided in current law) resides, if the person’s commission of the offense is not relevant to the person’s ability to care for the child and the placement is in the best interests of the child.
  • Makes optional (rather than required, as under current law) certain recommendations in a petition seeking participation of a parent, guardian, or custodian in a program of care, treatment, or rehabilitation of a child.
  • Permits out-of-home placement of a child in a facility located outside Indiana only if there is not an equivalent facility (rather than a comparable facility, under current law) located in Indiana.
  • Provides that a court may order a parent, guardian, or custodian of a child to participate in a mental health or addiction treatment program if the parent, guardian, or custodian will be participating in a program of care, treatment, or rehabilitation of the child.
  • Prohibits filing by a child placing agency of a petition for voluntary termination of parental rights unless the petition is in furtherance of an adoption or other permanency plan.
  • Requires a law enforcement agency to forward a missing child report to the department.
  • Requires the department to complete a written report within 24 hours of receiving a report of a missing child. Requires the department to provide information concerning certain missing children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
  • Provides that the consent of an agency or local office: (1) with lawful custody of a child whose adoption is being sought; and (2) who is served with a notice of adoption concerning the child; is not subject to being irrevocably implied.
  • Provides immunity for a person who leaves an infant with a person who is an emergency medical services provider.

The full law is available at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2017/bills/senate/447