Committee reviews H.2 draft 4.1: raises minimum juvenile jurisdiction age, delays Raise the Age to 2027 and adds Red Clover reporting

Members of a legislative Judiciary committee reviewed draft 4.1 of H.2, a package of proposed changes to juvenile jurisdiction that would raise the minimum age for family-division delinquency proceedings from 10 to 12, eliminate a current exception that treats alleged murders as juvenile matters regardless of age, delay the scheduled implementation of Raise the Age protections, and add a data-reporting requirement for the Red Clover treatment facility.

The proposed amendments, explained by Eric Fitzpatrick of the Office of Legislative Council, would lift the lower age threshold for family-division juvenile jurisdiction from 10 to 12 and remove the statutory exception that currently allows murder allegations involving children younger than the minimum age to proceed in family court. "The proposal is that there's no exception for any particular type of offense—age limit is 12," Fitzpatrick told the committee while walking members through the draft language.

The draft also pauses the current Raise the Age effective date of April 1, 2025, and reschedules sections 5–9 to take effect two years later (the draft sets an effective date in 2027). In place of the original…