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Committee bars certain state employees from serving as youth-court intake officers; amendment removes one agency by name
Summary
The committee unanimously amended and advanced a bill to prohibit use of certain state employees as youth-court intake officers, removing a named Department reference and leaving the Administrative Office of the Courts as the implementing actor.
The Judiciary Division A committee advanced Senate Bill 24-80 after approving an amendment that struck a named child-welfare agency from a provision restricting which state employees may serve as youth-court intake officers.
The chair introduced the bill as a codification of actions taken after hearings in Judiciary A and a report the committee received: "intake officers were being used improperly," he said, and added that intake work "is a specialized area and it's not data entry." The bill language on lines 27–29 would bar specified state employees from performing intake duties in youth court.
Senator Boyd offered an amendment to remove the Department of Child "Suppressive" Services from that line; the amendment carried. Committee discussion cited county understaffing and the youth court support fund being "woefully underfunded" as drivers behind the practice of using non‑dedicated staff for intake. Committee members noted that some DYS employees, because DYS is part of the Department of Human Services (DHS), had been used as intake officers.
Committee members said they are working with the Administrative Office of the Courts, which the chief justice has assigned a staffer to oversee youth courts, to create and fund dedicated intake positions if the approach proves workable. After amendments the committee set the bill as amended and advanced it by voice vote.
