SSHB 191 Summary

• Requires the department to make reasonable efforts to permit children in state custody to attend their pre-commitment church, including contacting the church and arranging transportation and supervision unless it unduly burdens foster parents or interferes with their own church attendance.

• Mandates that parents or guardians of committed children provide the court with names, addresses, and telephone numbers of churches the child was attending before commitment.

• Requires the department to ask participants in team-decision meetings about placement transfers whether it is in the child's best interest for the child to remain in their current church, if applicable.

• Directs the department to make reasonable efforts to permit transferred children to continue attending their current church as part of placement transition procedures.

• Subjects foster parent decision-making authority under the "reasonable and prudent parent standard" to department requirements regarding church attendance in AS 47.10.080(q) and (y).