Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Legislative hearing on restoring citizen review boards to oversee child-protection cases
Summary
Senate Bill 367 would reestablish and expand citizen review boards to examine child-protective services and case outcomes; proponents argued boards would reduce time children spend in foster care and provide neutral community oversight, while child-welfare administrators urged time to plan and raised federal compliance and fiscal concerns.
A hearing Feb. 24 considered Senate Bill 367, sponsored by Senator Dennis Lenz, which would revive and revise Montana's citizen review boards (CRBs) to provide community oversight of child-protective services and foster-care cases.
Proponents said CRBs would supplement existing foster-care review processes and give families a vetted community forum to raise concerns when other remedies have failed. Matt Furlong, representing the Montana Child Protection Alliance, told senators the state ombudsman receives roughly 300 calls a year…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
