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Committee advances bill to restore combined termination and adoption hearings in most cases
Summary
Senate Bill 1021 would allow termination‑of‑parental‑rights hearings and adoption hearings to be held together in many cases, returning to a pre‑2020 practice that sponsors say speeds permanent placement for children. The committee sent the bill to the amending order with a committee amendment clarifying consent language.
The House Health and Welfare Committee advanced Senate Bill 1021 to the amending order with a committee amendment that clarifies when termination and adoption hearings may be combined. Proponents said the change reinstates a practice that expedited placements prior to a court decision that altered the process.
Representative Raeser explained the bill and said that in 2020 the court had interpreted existing law to prevent combining termination and adoption hearings in some cases. "In 2020 … the supreme court determined that because that was not in statute, it could not be done that way," Raeser told the committee. The bill reinstates combined hearings "other than in certain carefully selected situations," allowing children to be placed with adoptive families more quickly in most cases.
Members adopted a committee amendment addressing a drafting ambiguity on page 3. The committee amendment replaces lines 35–36 with language stating, in part, that a "consent to termination signed by the parent or parents of the child has been filed, and the termination is initiated by the department pertaining to a child who is in legal custody of the department." Representative Raeser and Department of Health and Welfare legislative staff said the change puts consented terminations involving children in Department custody on the same footing as other consented terminations.
Jared Larson, legislative and regulatory affairs chief at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, told the committee the amendment makes clear the subsection applies to all consented terminations and preserves the department's ability to follow the 2020 practice when the department initiates termination for a child in its custody. "This puts all … consented terminations on equal footing in Idaho law," Larson said.
The committee approved sending the bill to general orders with the committee amendment. The motion to send Senate Bill 1021 to the amending order with the committee amendment carried on voice vote.
