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Committee advances Safe Haven Act update to require adoption-agency placements, tribal notice
Summary
The Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to print RS 32140, a draft that would require the Department of Health and Welfare to maintain a list of licensed adoption agencies for infants left at safe-haven locations and to notify tribes under the Indian Child Welfare Act when appropriate.
The Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee advanced RS 32140 to print after sponsor Senator Tammy Nichols described changes to Idaho Code section 39-8202 that would clarify placement procedures for infants left under the state's Safe Haven law.
The bill would require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to maintain a list of licensed adoption agencies available to accept infants left at safe-haven locations such as hospitals and fire stations, and to transfer custody to a selected agency “within 24 hours unless there are urgent circumstances,” Nichols said. The draft also directs immediate notification of a child’s tribe or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and issuance of required notices within 10 days, when there is reason to believe the child is an Indian child and the Indian Child Welfare Act applies.
Supporters said the measure aims to place children quickly with vetted adoptive families rather than into foster care. “The goal is to place abandoned children who have been placed in safe-haven boxes with vetted, ready and waiting adoptive families, thereby avoiding the need for the children to enter the foster care system,” Senator Tammy Nichols said while presenting RS 32140.
Committee members asked procedural and factual questions. Senator Harris asked, “What happens to them now?” Nichols replied, “Right now, they would go into the foster care system.” Senator Wintrow asked for data about how many safe-haven boxes exist in Idaho and whether any children have been left in them; Nichols offered to provide that information at a full hearing.
Senator Keiser moved to send RS 32140 to print; Senator Zieterfeld seconded. The committee approved the motion by voice vote with no recorded opposition.
RS 32140’s sponsor said the draft is intended to clarify and streamline existing procedures without adding costs to the state general fund. The sponsor also said the Department of Health and Welfare and child-advocacy groups participated in drafting the language.
