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Panel approves overhaul to statutory definition of neglect
Summary
The Committee advanced Bill 20-64-100 to consolidate and clarify neglect definitions—separating abuse and abandonment, focusing assessments on the child's condition, and specifying that poverty alone cannot establish neglect.
The committee moved the print and report for Bill 20-64-100, the Statutory Neglect Amendment Act of 2026. The bill, carried into the committee after a referral from the Committee on Youth Affairs, seeks to standardize definitions of neglect, create separate definitions for abuse and abandonment, focus statutory language on a child's condition rather than parental characteristics, and clarify that poverty alone does not constitute neglect.
"This bill would consolidate, standardize, and update the statutory definition of neglect by creating separate definitions for abuse and abandonment," Chairwoman Pinto said in her introduction. Pinto summarized several substantive changes adopted from the Youth Affairs committee including expanding the definition of an "unwilling caretaker" to capture individuals who may express an intention to stop meeting a child's needs, clarifying that homelessness or housing instability alone does not establish willful neglect without additional factors, and specifying the components that constitute neglect such as minimally necessary supervision and subsistence.
The committee thanked the Children's Law Center and the Office of the Attorney General for technical expertise and approved the print unanimously.
