Multiple bills have been filed this session to:
- Ensure youth in foster care spend more time in loving homes with caring families instead of dreary, impersonal facilities with a high risk of abuse, and
- Improve legal representation of youth in Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs).
These bills recognize that selective, brief use of RTCs can be appropriate — but youth are safer and thrive more in families. The bills are based on the report commissioned by Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s SB 1575 (87R), including recommendations developed by 26 experts in collaboration with the Children’s Commission.
SB 1930 by Senator Kolkhorst will help youth in foster care live with a loving family by:
- Ensuring judges proactively monitor the child’s progress in the RTC and monitor the plan to quickly and successfully return the child to a family.
- Outlining new duties for attorneys or CASA volunteers representing children placed in RTCs.
- Ensuring parents are able to participate in meetings about their child’s treatment in an RTC.
HB 1972 by Rep. Liz Campos will help youth in foster care live with a loving family by:
- Ensuring judges proactively monitor the child’s progress in the RTC and monitor the plan to quickly and successfully return the child to a family.
HB 2541 by Rep. Josey Garcia will help youth live with a loving family by:
- Outlining new duties for attorneys or CASA volunteers representing children placed in RTCs.
- Ensuring parents are able to participate in meetings about their child’s treatment in an RTC.
