What are the events at the State House:
1. A Press conference by Senator Spilka and Representative Donato, both of whom sponsored the bill that became Senate Bill 66.
2. A hearing in Room b-2 of the State House that is scheduled to begin at 10:30 AM 3/29.
Now, the first thing you will probably ask me is: CHINS, what is “CHINS” – it is the acronymn for Children in Need of Services. When a family or school feels they cannot meet the needs of a child, some folks head straight to court. The link embedded in this paragraph will tell you more than you want to know or can imagine about CHINS.
The goal of this legislation is to improve services for children, and divert more cases into treatment modalities and fewer into probation and the court system. If the services outlined are well and consistently funded, fewer kids would lose their schools and families.
Here is the text of the Bill Note that the potential counsel fee for children to be paid by parents if “not indigent” is raised from $300.00 to $1000.00 – that might mean fewer families of modest means (who are not indigent under the poverty guidelines) would file “stubborn” type CHINS cases – but the parent has no choice if a school files, do they? That is, if all courts were equally active in determining indigency.
This is a long bill, crafted from the best of intentions, but without well funded, competent, community services it won’t work.
As well as a hearing that was “on” but did not complete today, so held “day-to-day” into tomorrow.