The Senate Committee on Family and Children Services heard SB 180 authored by Sen. Jon Ford on attorneys for children in juvenile court. The bill (1) requires the appointment of an attorney for each child in a Child in Need of Services (CHINS) case where abuse or neglect is alleged, and in a termination of parental rights (TPR) case, (2) specifies that a child’s guardian ad litem or special advocate must be an attorney, (3) specifies that the attorney for the child, as well as the attorney for the parent in a TPR proceeding, shall be appointed before the first hearing, (4) requires the attorney to meet with the child within 14 days of the preliminary protective hearing and before all substantive hearings, and (5) provides that if the court finds that a parent has the ability to pay all or part of the attorney cost, the court shall order the parent to pay the amount ordered by the court, enforceable by a civil judgement.
The following organizations and people testified in favor of the bill: Child Advocates, Indiana Foster and Adoptive Parents, Children’s Law and Policy Initiative, a public defender, a private attorney, and several foster parents. Foster Success testified in favor of the concept of counsel for older foster youth.
The Indiana Public Defender Commission testified as supportive of the concept but neutral on the bill. Judge Graham testified on behalf of the Juvenile Justice Improvement Committee as opposed to the bill as written, outlined a number of complexities to the issue, and requested that the issue go to an interim study committee.
The bill was amended to add a Commission on Counsel for Children, modeled on the Public Defender Commission, and to allow the appointment of a single attorney for all siblings in a case. The bill passed 9-0 and was recommitted to the Appropriations Committee.
Read the bill at: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/senate/180