The Department of Family Services told the task force it seeks narrowly tailored changes to confidentiality law so staff can share information with other agencies and providers to connect families to services faster.

"Our most restrictive confidentiality statute, however, does fall within our child welfare space and that child protective space, and that's in title 14," Christie Gordy, senior administrator in DFS's social-services division, told the panel. Gordy said two bills considered in the prior legislative session'House Bill 48 and Senate File 157'did not pass but that the operational need remains.

Gordy and other DFS staff described daily examples where limited statutory authority prevented staff from doing a "warm handoff" of a family in crisis. In one instance she recounted, DFS could not share information beyond Medicaid eligibility with the Department of Health about a child being discharged from a facility and still considered at risk: "we were unable to share any information with the department of health because it was not related to Medicaid eligibility," Gordy said, and that prevented coordinated follow-up.

Why it matters: DFS said families expect agencies to coordinate; when staff cannot share basic case information because of statute-level confidentiality limits, families must provide the same sensitive information multiple times, which can delay access to services and increase trauma.

Scope, safeguards and next steps

DFS emphasized the request is for limited, rules-based sharing for approved use cases (case coordination, system coordination, and approved research) rather than a broad data release. Gordy said proposed changes would rely on formal data-sharing agreements, rulemaking, security and reporting requirements, and director-level approvals before data could be shared. DFS asked the task force to weigh transparency and accountability mechanisms alongside any statutory changes.

Providers and youth-service representatives supported narrower, case-by-case sharing that would permit direct referrals into mental-health or community supports without requiring families to navigate multiple systems on their own. The task force asked DFS to return with draft language, examples of approved use cases, and a description of oversight, audit and reporting mechanisms under any proposed change.