Committee takes up sweeping changes to permanency timelines and foster‑parent rights; bill recommitted to appropriations

A Senate committee heard hours of testimony and debate on House Bill 1605, a comprehensive package of changes targeting timelines to permanency in child welfare, expanded rights for foster parents to intervene in CHINS (children in need of services) proceedings, and new procedures for termination of parental rights (TPR).

Representative Julie McGuire presented the bill, which sponsors describe as an effort to reduce the long time children spend in foster care and to give courts and caregivers clearer tools to secure timely permanency. The sponsor summarized several major provisions: prohibiting procedural waivers of deadlines in many CHINS and TPR hearings (while preserving extensions for exigent circumstances), allowing long‑term foster parents and certain caregivers to intervene in CHINS proceedings under defined guardrails, enabling intervenors to seek TPR in some cases, and requiring the court to hold…