{"id":23185,"date":"2018-02-07T17:29:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T23:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23185"},"modified":"2018-02-07T17:29:59","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T23:29:59","slug":"training-about-sexual-abuse-proposed-for-foster-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23185","title":{"rendered":"Training about sexual abuse proposed for foster parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foster parents in Nebraska would receive more comprehensive training about sexual abuse under a bill heard by the Health and Human Services Committee Feb. 7.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Anna Wishart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB1041, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart, would require that the training specifically include identifying a child\u2019s risk of sexual abuse, minimizing the potential for sexual abuse, talking appropriately about boundaries with children, recognizing signs of abuse and reacting appropriately to any sign or disclosure of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

Wishart said the state\u2019s current training programs for foster parents provide information on identifying false allegations of sexual abuse or assault. This information could discourage foster parents and guardians from taking allegations seriously and reporting them to the appropriate authorities as required by law, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChild sexual abuse can haunt a survivor for the rest of their lifetime, increasing the risk for physical and mental health problems,\u201d Wishart said. \u201cProtecting the welfare of children in our state is a priority for every member in the Legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill also would require families seeking licensure for a kinship placement to complete the sexual abuse awareness training. Currently, families can receive a waiver for the general licensure training requirements.<\/p>\n

Inspector General for Nebraska Child Welfare Julie Rogers spoke in support of the bill. She said an investigation into sexual abuse claims found that 50 children in the state\u2019s care were victims of sexual abuse between 2013 and 2016.<\/p>\n

Education on the prevalence of sexual abuse in the foster care system is especially important, Rogers said, considering that a child living without either parent is 10 times more likely to be sexually abused than a child living with both parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many instances, the foster parents were ill-equipped to protect the children and respond appropriately when sexual abuse allegations were made,\u201d she said. \u201cEducating foster parents on prevention ensures that children in state care are safe and that the appropriate action will be taken when issues do arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing Nebraska Appleseed, Becca Brune also testified in support of LB1041. She said that child sexual abuse remains a problem throughout the state\u2019s foster care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what we have seen, the training currently used is not comprehensive enough and not uniformly applied across the state,\u201d Brune said. \u201cThe training detailed in the bill would better prepare foster and adoptive parents to identify and report allegations of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foster parents in Nebraska would receive more comprehensive training about sexual abuse under a bill heard by the Health and Human Services Committee Feb. 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[180],"class_list":["post-23185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-anna-wishart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/LB1041Wishart2-7-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23186,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23185\/revisions\/23186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}