Senate committee backs measure to speed placement of safe-haven infants, adds ICWA notification steps

Senator Tammy Nichols (R–District 10) told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that Senate Bill 1058 updates Idaho’s safe-haven statutes to expedite placement of infants who are surrendered anonymously at designated safe-haven locations and to clarify procedures for Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) notifications.

Under the bill as presented, custody of a child surrendered under the Safe Haven Act would be transferred to a selected licensed adoption agency within 24 hours when circumstances permit. If the infant requires additional medical care and no adoptive placement is found within 48 hours, the child would remain in hospital care and a shelter-care hearing would be initiated. The bill also requires immediate notification to a child’s tribe or to the Bureau of Indian Affairs if the child may be an Indian child; ICWA notices must be issued within 10 days, testimony said.

"This bill requires that the custody of the child be transferred to the selective adoption agency within 24 hours of the child being surrendered unless there's certain circumstances that exist such as medical care," Nichols said, describing the change as aimed at placing newborns quickly with vetted adoptive families and reducing unnecessary entries into foster care.

Adoption-agency witnesses urged the committee to approve the bill. Kara Walsh, a licensed social worker with A New Beginning Adoption Agency, said adoption agencies maintain staff and 24/7 intake capacity and can reduce transitions that may disrupt early bonding. Terry Marcroft of Unplanned Good said the bill would shorten the time between surrender and placement without changing longer-term legal milestones and that the Department of Health and Welfare supported the streamlined placement timeline.

Not all public testimony supported the change. Whitney Wunderlich, a mother who adopted a newborn surrendered under Idaho’s Safe Haven Act through foster care, said she favored keeping safe-haven infants inside the foster-care system because foster parents receive training specific to newborns with unknown medical histories. "I disagree with this bill because it would place vulnerable babies with potentially complex unknown medical and behavioral conditions with adoptive parents that would not likely have the same ... training of Idaho foster parents," Wunderlich said, and she suggested the legislature could instead expedite adoption timelines within the foster system.

Tyrell Stevenson and Blake Hude, representing tribal interests, told the committee the bill was drafted with tribal consultation, and that the language better aligns safe-haven procedures with ICWA protections. Stevenson described ICWA’s purpose of keeping Native children connected to families and tribes and said the bill includes steps to ensure tribes are notified when appropriate.

Senator Wintrow voiced strong reservations about the underlying policy of safe-haven placement, expressing concern about possible coercion and the normalization of abandoning infants; she said she intended to vote no. Despite that opposition, Senator Keiser moved and Senator Beierke seconded that the committee send SB 1058 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation; the motion passed by voice vote.

The measure next moves to the full Senate for further debate.