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Committee hears technical fixes to out‑of‑state residential‑placement rules for children
Summary
DHHS and the Office of the Child Advocate described a replace‑all amendment to correct drafting inconsistencies in a prior law governing residential treatment placements and certification of out‑of‑state programs.
Senate Bill 161 returned to the House Children and Family Law Committee as a technical “replace‑all” bill intended to correct drafting inconsistencies that resulted from last session’s merger of two laws expanding oversight of residential treatment placements.
Sen. Regina Birdsall (District 19) introduced SB 161 as a remedial measure requested by the Department of Health and Human Services. Susan Larrabee, general counsel and legislative liaison for DHHS’s Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), told the committee the bill replaces two inadvertently unchanged sections so terminology is consistent across the statutes and corrects a cross‑reference error.
Larrabee described how prior enactments required placements to be licensed by the state where the facility operates and certified by the DHHS unit that oversees children’s behavioral‑health placements. She said DCYF and stakeholders already implemented new procedures, including a visitation form for monthly caseworker visits, trainings, and updated administrative rules; SB 161 would make two sections of statute consistent with that work.
Betty Gay (House Alumni Association) asked whether the bill’s language explicitly meant certification by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services; Larrabee confirmed the bill uses “department” as shorthand and DCYF treats that to mean the New Hampshire department, consistent with other statutory definitions in RSA 169‑C.
Attorney Lisa Wolford (Children’s Law Center) and Office of the Child Advocate representatives supported the correction as a clean‑up that aligns the law with the implementation already underway, and invited the committee to consider a small wording clarification to avoid any suggestion that judicial oversight of placements applies only to out‑of‑state placements.
Witnesses and committee members agreed to draft a short clarifying amendment before final action; no fiscal impact was reported in committee research.
The hearing record shows the committee discussed a replace‑all amendment (15‑39 H) to fix the two inconsistent subsections and correct a Scribner’s error. Larrabee said the corrections harmonize language about licensing in the facility’s home state and New Hampshire certification.
