The Senate Family and Children Services Committee heard SB 423 authored by Sen. Bohacek on a court appointed youth advocate pilot program. The proposed program would give the court the ability to appoint a court appointed youth advocate for a child in a delinquency case post-adjudication. The advocate’s purpose is to provide counseling, tutoring, mentoring, positive role modeling, and information to the youth, in addition to advocating on the youth’s behalf with other system stakeholders.
Sen. Bohacek offered an amendment that made the Office of Judicial Administration responsible for administering the program and removed the five specified pilot counties. The bill passed 8-0 as amended and will be recommitted to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Read the bill at: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2019/bills/senate/423