House bill to update abuse-and-neglect definitions draws broad debate over substance-exposure, psychological harm

Representative Alicia Gregg, prime sponsor of the bill to update New Hampshire's child protection statute, told the Children and Family Law Committee the state's foundational abuse-and-neglect definitions had not been modernized in 45 years and said the change would let courts and the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) move earlier to keep families safe. "For 45 years, this has sat with not a good or, robust revision on what defines abuse and neglect in our state," Gregg said.

The bill would (1) expand the statutory definitions of abuse and neglect to explicitly include emotional and psychological harms and developmental risk, (2) create a set of rebuttable presumptions of harm (for example, unexplained serious injury to a non-ambulatory infant and parental substance exposure paired with demonstrable harm), and (3) add a definition for trauma-informed care.

Cassandra Sanchez, the state Child Advocate, said OCA and the stakeholders who worked on the earlier study recommended the changes after reviewing cases in which DCYF's legal authority and court…