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Social Services Consortium,
I wanted to give you a brief update on some legislative bills that needed to meet the crossover deadline and where they are currently. I plan on updating our spreadsheet on all the bills but have not been able to work on it as we had crossover last week followed by the Eastern Region meeting and Board/Committee meetings this week. So here are some “biggies” in no particular order! Remember there are a lot of other bills we are watching/working on but they either have a fiscal note attached or are a study and did not have to meet crossover.
HB 1087 Clarify Definition of Social Worker http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/House/HTML/H1087v3.html
This bill passed the House with an amendment that was added (a2) A person engaged in the practice of social work while employed by a county of this State may hold himself or herself out to the public as a social worker only if the title or description includes "county agency social worker" if that person is not a social worker as defined in this Chapter. " It went to the Senate and has been placed in the committee on Mental Health and Youth Services.
SB 1074 Facility Quality And Safety Improvements http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/Senate/HTML/S1074v2.html
This bill addresses concerns that were raised over the safety of facilities that the state has statutory responsibility to oversee. We worked very hard with Div. of Facility Services, Div. of Aging and Adult Services, and the DHHS liaisons to find compromises in the bill language. The bill passed the Senate and has gone to the House Health Committee.
HB 1551 Preservice Training Exemp /Certain CPS Workers http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/House/HTML/H1551v1.html
This bill helps us create flexibility in the pre-service training for CPS workers. It passed the House and has gone to the Senate committee on Mental Health and Youth Services.
HB 661 Substantiation Appeal Process/ Juv Abuse/Neglect http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/House/HTML/H661v3.html
This bill allows for the CPS Central Registry to be used to screen foster care and day care applicants and gives those who are listed on the registry an appeal process. This bill was met with a lot of contention by some legislators who were focused on the idea that DSS was creating a “list” of people. Although the registry has existed for year they seemed to think that the bill was creating the opportunity for the list and that it gave too much power to DSS Directors to “blacklist” citizens who had not been proven guilty.
Rep. Glazier, who was running the bill, tried very hard to help them understand that the bill gave the opportunity for a formal appeal process that had not previously existed and gave extra protection to children by using the registry to better screen foster care and day care applicants. It fell on deaf ears with comments being offered up such as “ DSS Directors already have a God complex and giving them the power to put peoples' names on this list is just going to make it worse ” and “ So if I spank my adopted child I guess that means my name is going to end up on the list ” and “ DSS makes a lot of mistakes. In my county they put a child with her natural father even though the sibling living with the father was telling them that “daddy does this and daddy does that” but DSS didn't listen. The father ended up putting the child in a refrigerator and killing her ”. It was very frustrating to sit and listen to these kinds of comments. Rep Glazier asked to pull the bill to do some amendments. We worked hard to amend the bill and Rep. Tim Moore introduced the amendments on the floor the next day which passed along with the bill unanimously. The Bill went on to pass through the House and was sent to the Senate. It has been placed in the committee on Mental Health and Youth Services. It is scheduled to be heard in that committee on Wednesday June 15 th at 12:00.
HB 1074 Clarify School Admissions Procedures http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/House/HTML/H1074v4.html
This bill was originally intended to require the person who was taking care of a child in a county other then where the legal guardian presided, to have legal liability for that child. For instance, the foster parent of the child would have to have legal liability for the actions of the child. The bill was worked on extensively through a series of meetings and the amended version passed the House and has been sent to the Senate committee on Education/Higher Education.
HB 1474 Public Assistance Benefits/Residents Only http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/House/HTML/H1474v1.html
This bill was intended to assure that public benefits were only give to legal residents and not to undocumented residents. There were some problems with the bill as it was written. The bill was amended but did not make crossover, however, the bill sponsor will most likely have HHS to provide a fiscal note for the bill which will then make it eligible to be heard again.
HB 1150 Expedite Juv Proceedings/ GAL http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/House/HTML/H1150v2.html
This bill was created to address the long appeal process in TPRs that keep children from permanent placements. The bill passed the House and has been sent to the Senate JII committee.
