Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Committee advances bill to place safe-haven infants with waiting adoptive families
Summary
A legislative committee voted to send Senate Bill 1058 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation. The bill would allow infants surrendered at safe-haven locations to be matched with vetted adoptive parents more quickly while preserving procedures to identify Indian children under federal law.
The Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1058 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation after sponsors and tribal representatives described changes intended to speed placement of infants left at safe-haven facilities.
Representative Heather Scott of District 2, the House sponsor, told the committee the bill "deals with safe haven babies" and would allow healthy newborns who are surrendered at designated locations to be placed with waiting, licensed adoptive parents rather than entering the foster-care system. Scott said the bill directs the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to maintain a list of licensed adoption agencies and requires the department to contact an agency within 24 hours, with a 48-hour fallback to the regular foster process if placement cannot be found.
The bill adds a definition for "Indian child" consistent with federal…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
