{"id":40756,"date":"2026-04-02T14:19:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=40756"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:19:31","slug":"youth-reentry-program-clears-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=40756","title":{"rendered":"Youth reentry program clears first round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers gave first-round approval April 2 to a measure aimed at easing the transition for Nebraska youth leaving detention, residential placement or probation supervision.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_28755\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28755\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"28755\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?attachment_id=28755\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SenMcKinney_inline.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"297,445\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;11&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Office of University Communicati&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS-1D X Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Terrell McKinney. District 11. Nebraska Legislature. November 9, 2020.  Photo by Craig Chandler \/ University Communication&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1604945865&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;\\u00a9 2020, The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved.&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;170&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.00625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"SenMcKinney_inline\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Sen. Terrell McKinney&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Sen. Terrell McKinney&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SenMcKinney_inline-200x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SenMcKinney_inline.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-28755\" src=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SenMcKinney_inline-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Sen. Terrell McKinney\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SenMcKinney_inline-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/SenMcKinney_inline.jpg 297w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28755\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Terrell McKinney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>LB962, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney, would create the Youth Reentry and Transitional Support Act, a multi-agency program focused on continuity of services during the first year of a young person\u2019s transition back to their community.<\/p>\n<p>McKinney said reentry is a critical period for youth in the state\u2019s juvenile system, which too often focuses on supervision and \u201cunderinvests\u201d in transition planning. As a result, he said, youth frequently leave state systems without proper support, leading to housing instability, gaps in medical care and a higher risk for recidivism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we want different outcomes, we must build different systems,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cLB962 is an effort to improve the process of when youth are leaving our systems to make sure they have better plans and better supports to make sure they don\u2019t return back to our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Judiciary Committee amendment, adopted 43-0, replaced the bill with a modified version of the proposal that would narrow eligibility and simplify the program by using existing agency staff and resources.<\/p>\n<p>The amendment directs the state department of Health and Human Services, Office of Juvenile Services, Office of Probation Administration and the state Department of Education\u2019s Division of Rehabilitation Services to coordinate in establishing the reentry program.<\/p>\n<p>A transition plan would be developed at the point of entry into a state system to address the following areas upon a juvenile\u2019s release:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>family engagement;<\/li>\n<li>housing stability;<\/li>\n<li>school reentry;<\/li>\n<li>behavioral health and Medicaid continuity; and<\/li>\n<li>employment and workforce assistance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Eligible youth would be provided with a transition plan, regular reviews and reentry supervision.<\/p>\n<p>The committee amendment also would narrow eligibility from youth under age 21 to those under age 19 and remove a number of requirements in the original proposal, including caseload standards and a guarantee of 12 months of aftercare services.<\/p>\n<p>McKinney said the amendment would address fiscal concerns from DHHS and the Nebraska Supreme Court while still improving the reentry process for juveniles leaving probation or state custody.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, committee chairperson, supported the amendment and the underlying bill. She said the measure would focus on transition planning and coordination and eliminate the original proposal\u2019s fiscal impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe this amendment reflects a good compromise, improving the bill and creating a more workable framework for accomplishing the underlying goal of LB962,\u201d Bosn said.<\/p>\n<p>An additional amendment offered by McKinney and adopted 36-0 would make the bill\u2019s implementation optional, clarify agency responsibility and eliminate agency obligations to provide services once a juvenile leaves probation supervision or state care, custody or control.<\/p>\n<p>After adoption of an additional technical amendment, lawmakers advanced LB962 to select file on a 41-0 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers gave first-round approval April 2 to a measure aimed at easing the transition for Nebraska youth leaving detention, residential placement or probation supervision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40735,"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":[13],"tags":[262],"class_list":["post-40756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-terrell-mckinney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LB962McKinney4-2-26a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40756","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=40756"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40758,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40756\/revisions\/40758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}