A child welfare overhaul bill that recently sped through the Kentucky Senate would, among other things, explicitly distinguish neglect from poverty in child welfare cases. According to WHAS11, it would also permit the state to open cases earlier in circumstances where children are at moderate risk of removal.
Senate Bill 8, an emergency measure introduced by Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams on Jan. 20 was sent to the House on a 32-4 vote in early February. Lawmakers appear motivated to address a number of matters that have made Kentucky lead the nation in the rate of child abuse and neglect cases for three years running, according to a press release.
Another aspect of the bill would allow the state to open cases earlier when children are considered at moderate risk of being removed from a home. This would allow child welfare officials to offer aid and services to the family before separation becomes necessary.
The bill would increase resources for Kentucky’s child advocacy centers and allow youth emerging from the foster care system to keep accessing educational, job training and other resources to smooth their transition to adulthood.
Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Racque Adams, R-Louisville, chief sponsor of SB 8 said after the vote: “Today is one step closer to protecting our most vulnerable,” Adams said after the vote. “I implore the state House to give this measure the attention it deserves.” As an emergency measure, the bill would become law as soon as the governor signed it.
Critics of the nation’s child welfare system — including some prominent former federal officials — have been pushing for just the kind of change Kentucky’s SB 8 envisions, including explicitly clarifying that poverty and neglect are not the same thing. While serious neglect is a sound basis for removal into the foster care system, child advocates say, officials too often don’t make the distinction between the two, and children are taken away from parents who are doing the best they can but are too poor to provide everything they might if they had the means.
The Kentucky Senate’s action may represent some new momentum in efforts around the country not to penalize poverty within the child welfare systems. It is one of the first states to attempt to put the concept in state law.