Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Child Welfare topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee sends Safe Haven Act update to print; bill would require quicker placements and tribe notification
Summary
The Health and Welfare Committee voted to send RS 32140 to print. The resolution would amend Idaho Code §39-8202 to require the Department of Health and Welfare to maintain a list of licensed adoption agencies, seek placement within 24 hours when possible, and trigger Indian Child Welfare Act notifications when a child may be an Indian child.
Senator Tammy Nichols, R‑District 10, presented RS 32140, an update to Idaho’s Safe Haven Act, to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and the committee voted to send the draft to print.
The measure would amend Idaho Code section 39‑8202 to require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to maintain a list of licensed adoption agencies for placement of infants left at designated Safe Haven locations such as hospitals and fire stations. Under the proposed language, custody should be transferred to a selected agency within 24 hours unless urgent medical circumstances exist. If a child requires medical care and no adoptive family is identified within 48 hours, the bill directs that the child remain in the hospital while the court and prosecutors are notified for a shelter‑care hearing.
Nichols told the committee the bill would also require the department to notify a child’s tribe or the Bureau of Indian Affairs “immediately” and to issue required notices within 10 days if there is reason to believe the child is an Indian child, invoking the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). She said the bill emphasizes coordination with tribes on language and policy and that the director of Health and Welfare helped shape implementation details.
"This legislation amends section 39‑8202 of the Idaho Code updating the Safe Haven Act to include new definitions and provisions," Nichols said. "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."
Nichols told the committee the language is intended to clarify and streamline placement procedures and that the measure would not increase costs to the state general fund or impose new financial burdens on state or local government. Senator Harris asked what happens under current practice; Nichols responded that children currently typically enter the foster care system. Senator Wintrow asked for baseline information — how many Safe Haven boxes exist and whether infants have been left in them — and Nichols said she and staff would provide that data at the formal hearing.
The motion to send RS 32140 to print was moved by Senator Keiser and seconded by Senator Zieterfeld. The committee voice‑voted in favor.
If advanced, the draft will be formally introduced and scheduled for committee hearing where staff will provide the requested counts and further implementation details.
