This Tuesday House File (HF) 3211 – featured in last week’s blog – passed through the House Human Services committee. The bill would put income intended for foster children into trust accounts rather than being seized by counties. Watch this powerful testimony by two foster care veterans (see minutes 44:15 – 59:00 of the hearing).
Yesterday the Judiciary Committee approved Maya’s Law, HF 3971 and referred it to the Human Services committee. Maya’s Law requires that child protection workers interview children separately from their alleged abusers, and that foster children be interviewed separately from foster parents. HF 3845, which establishes an ombudsperson for foster youth, is being heard today.
Challenges remain before these bills become law. But this is the first legislative progress on these issues in several years.
Watch email and social media for updates and… ways to help keep these bills moving!
This is some of the most powerful testimony I have heard in the decades I have spent on the Hill. Please give it a look. Things need to change. Did you know that we charge families most of whom make $10,000 or less–in poverty–for foster care? Prison? The foster care system is broken and we all share the burden of fixing it. Not the children. As a courageous young man who testified said, “It didn’t have to be this hard.”