The 2011 Legislature approved Senate Joint Resolution 30, for a study of childhood health trauma. The resolution called for a study of promising and evidence-based practices for the prevention of childhood trauma and for reducing its effects on children.
Legislators ranked the study seventh out of 16 study resolutions in a post-session poll, and the Legislative Council in May 2011 assigned the study to the Children and Families Committee.
As outlined in the adopted study plan, the committee began its SJR 30 activities at its March 2012 meeting. Members heard from a number of speakers who covered topics as far-ranging as the development of a child's brain to the ways in which the state responds to reports of child abuse and neglect. The presentations were designed to give national, state, and local views of the many issues associated with childhood trauma. In May, committee members heard more about the Child and Family Services Division workforce and related issues, oversight options for state child abuse and neglect efforts, the use of interdisciplinary teams, and barriers to providing more early intervention services.
In May, committee members:
authorized the drafting of legislation to create an ombudsman position for child abuse and neglect cases and to require the Child and Family Services Division to obtain accreditation from a national organization; and
asked to review additional information on confidentiality laws involving reports of child abuse and neglect and on early intervention programs.
The committee will review and take public comment on the bill drafts at its June 25 meeting, before deciding whether to introduce the bills in the 2013 Legislature.
