Committee amends safe-haven baby box rules to require monitoring and clarifies response protocol

The House Health Committee approved an amended version of House Bill 1844 to clarify statutory language on safe-haven baby boxes, require 24-hour monitoring for those boxes and ensure notification procedures are standardized.

Representative Butler, who presented the bill and amendment, said the change "clarifies some language in multiple sections of the codes on the locations that you can have" and requires monitoring that the sponsor said is already standard practice. He told the committee boxes are tested for seven days before deployment and that activation triggers three notifications: a local alarm at the box location, an automatic call to 911, and a third notification determined by the local authority (for example, to a fire chief or other designee).

Representative Butler addressed member concerns about response times, citing department contacts and examples of roughly four-to-five minute response times in Cookeville and Livingston. Members asked follow-up questions about how a box in an unmanned fire station would work and whether the surrendering person would face liability. The sponsor said the original safe-haven law allows a parent to surrender an unharmed infant and, if the parent returns within the law’s protections, they can retrieve the child; in practice the parent rarely returns. The sponsor described the post-surrender process: a responding fire or EMS member takes the infant to an emergency room for examination and custody is then transferred to the Department of Children's Services, which places the child with a family on a waiting list for foster care.

After discussion and adoption of amendment drafting code 013053, the clerk recorded 22 ayes and 0 nays and the bill passed out of committee to Finance, Ways and Means as amended.