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Committee approves Safe Haven amendment allowing baby boxes, sponsor says installation privately funded
Summary
Senate Bill 168, which adds manned volunteer fire departments as surrender sites and authorizes privately funded Safe Haven baby boxes, passed the committee after testimony from Monica Kelsey (Safe Haven Baby Boxes) about monitoring protocols and a 30‑day return policy; sponsor agreed to review grandparental‑rights language.
The Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee approved Senate Bill 168 to amend Arkansas’s Safe Haven Act to allow manned volunteer fire departments as lawful surrender locations and to authorize installation of privately funded Safe Haven baby boxes at surrender locations.
Senator Bledsoe, sponsor of the measure, told the committee the bill makes two changes to the 2001 law: it explicitly adds manned volunteer fire departments as surrender locations and permits the installation of electronically monitored baby boxes where desired. He said there are no mandates in…
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