Committee backs bill to require prehearing facilitator in child-protection cases

Senators and witnesses told the House Health and Human Services Committee that Senate Bill 73 aims to speed reconciliation in child-protection cases by ensuring a facilitator coordinates prehearing conferences after a child is removed.

Sponsor Sen. Mike Yakawich, R-Billings, told the committee the measure “provides increases [in] efficiency and better results of reconciliation for the child” and called the proposal “the efficiency bill.” The bill requires a facilitator or coordinator to bring parents, attorneys and other parties together and directs that certain steps occur within five days after a child’s removal.

The bill’s supporters said the prehearing conference formalizes a process that often happens informally and can help preserve parental rights and visitation. Patch Kawaki, representing the Blackfeet, the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy and the Fort Belknap Indian Community, said SB 73 “helps ensure [an] efficient and effective process during the court process for child protective services.” CJ Pijanowski described family experience with removals and said the bill “allows open flow through both parties” and helps parents “know what’s going on.”

Nikki Grossberg, division administrator for Child and Family Services, told the committee SB 73 “clarifies that the prehearing conference is required regardless of a parent's participation,” allowing the department, the child’s attorney and parents’ attorneys to confer even if a parent does not attend. Committee member Representative Cunningham asked whether the five-day requirement on page 4 referred to calendar days or business days; sponsors and staff acknowledged there had been confusion about business days in related rules and said staff would clarify drafting if needed.

S. Scoll, family defense bureau chief for the Office of the Public Defender, said she worked on the child-protective-services interim work group and was available to answer technical questions about prehearing conferences.

In executive action the committee moved to concur on Senate Bill 73. The committee approved the concurrence by voice vote; the committee recorded no roll-call tally in the hearing record and the motion was announced as passing unanimously. Vice Chair Howe was designated to carry the bill to the floor.

The measure enacts procedural clarifications for prehearing conferences in dependent-neglect and removal cases, while leaving decisions about placement and court findings to judges. Committee members asked staff to confirm drafting details about the timing language before floor action.