The Senate Committee on Family and Children Services heard SB 135 authored by Sens. Bohacek and Zay on required DCS notification for schools. The bill (1) requires a law enforcement agency that participates in a child abuse or neglect assessment (assessment) involving a child who attends kindergarten through grade 12 to provide information to the department of child services (DCS) if a person who resides in the home of the child is arrested during the course of the assessment, (2) requires DCS to provide information to the school a child attends if a person who resides in the home of the child is arrested during the course of an assessment, and (3) requires DCS to notify a child’s school if the child is removed from the child’s home.
The bill was amended to remove the language requiring notification of arrest and change the required timeline for DCS notification to schools of a child’s removal from the child’s home from 24 hours to 72 hours, due to the fiscal impact of a 24-hour notification requirement. Sen. Bohacek explained that current law gives DCS 10 days to notify a child’s school of a child’s removal from the home, and the goal of the bill is to shorten that timeline to allow the school to provide appropriate support to the child. The amended bill passed 7-0.