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Committee advances bills on child fatality review, foster‑student enrollment and autism pilot; joint study sought on DHS deficit
Summary
A rules-consideration committee advanced three bills—SB383 (child fatality review updates), SB431 (immediate enrollment for foster students), SB402 (expand autism pilot)—and SR622 (joint study on DHS deficit). The motion to move the items carried unanimously; vote counts were not specified.
A rules-consideration committee moved forward three bills and a joint study resolution after brief presentations and no recorded substantive objections.
An unidentified presenter said Senate Bill 383 is "an agency bill from GBI, and it cleans up and updates the child fatality review process." The committee did not ask questions of the author before advancing the bill.
Senate Bill 431, the presenter said, would require immediate enrollment of foster students within two days of changing schools to prevent educational disruption. "Their credits don't transfer and, we even heard a story of somebody who had to repeat a grade," the presenter said, citing anecdotal impacts of delayed enrollment.
SR622 was described as a joint study committee to investigate what the presenter called a long‑running deficit at the Department of Human Services and to recommend ways to address rising out‑of‑home care costs for foster children. The presenter said the government shutdown worsened the problem but did not create it.
On Senate Bill 402, a presenter outlined a pilot program currently in District 12 studying autism prevalence among foster youth and said the district had found autism to be "I believe, 6 times more prevalent in foster children than ... children outside of foster care." The presenter said the bill would expand the pilot from one district to three to determine whether the same pattern appears elsewhere and suggested a two‑pronged approach: bolster resources for families to prevent foster placements and ensure foster parents and homes receive needed supports; the speaker characterized parts of the later consideration as assumptions pending pilot findings.
After the presentations, the committee chair listed SB383, SB402, SB431 and SR622 for action. The vice chairman moved to advance those items and Senator Anderson seconded. Committee members voted "Aye" and the motion "carried unanimous," according to the transcript; individual vote counts were not provided.
The chair noted that items on the yellow sheet yesterday but not today would return the following day. The meeting then adjourned.
