Bill would make changes to foster care system

The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Feb. 16 on a bill that would make several changes to the Nebraska foster care system.

Lincoln Sen. Kathy Campbell said LB177 is intended to assist the state Department of Health and Human Services in implementing three specific requirements of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.

“LB177 underscores the importance of these three major themes,” she said.

Under the bill, HHS would be required to notify adult relatives within 30 days of a child’s removal from his or her home. An exception would be provided if an adult relative’s history of domestic or family violence would make notification inappropriate.

The bill also would require that HHS and the court make reasonable efforts to place siblings together and provide for frequent visitation when siblings are not placed together. An exception would be provided if joint placement or visitation would be contrary to the safety and well being of any sibling.

Finally, the bill would require the department to develop an individual proposal for each child transitioning out of foster care into adulthood. Such a proposal would include assessment of a foster child’s educational, employment, housing, health care and other support needs.

Kelli Hauptman, staff attorney with the court’s Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative, testified in support of the bill. She said placing the requirements in state law would encourage Nebraska judges to implement provisions of the federal law.

“Court stakeholders most often refer to Nebraska statutory law and case law,” she said.

Doug Peters of Voices for Children in Nebraska also supported the bill. Out of home placements often are intrusive and traumatic, he said, so making a greater effort to place children with family is important.

“Children deserve to be in the least restrictive, most family-like setting possible,” Peters said.

Georgie Scurfield, chairperson of the Foster Care Review Board, also testified in support of LB177, focusing on the transition plan requirement for children aging out of foster care.

The transition period into adulthood is difficult even under the best of circumstances, she said, and is especially difficult for young people leaving foster care.

“We watch those kids with great concern,” Scurfield said, “because we know that they become vulnerable adults.”

Proper planning on the part of caseworkers, the courts and others is essential to state wards’ economic and emotional survival, she said.

“They have to have not only a job that will pay them a wage that can support them,” she said, “but they also have to have somewhere to go on Thanksgiving.”

No opposition testimony was given and the committee took no immediate action on the bill.