SB 01012 Summary

• Redefines foster care placement requirements to permit emergency placements with unlicensed individuals (relatives, friends, neighbors) when a child's primary caregiver becomes suddenly unavailable, subject to home visits and basic family assessments.

• Changes criminal background check requirements for foster care and adoption applicants from age 16 to age 18 and establishes a 12-month exemption allowing applicants to avoid duplicate background checks if recently screened.

• Requires emergency placement individuals to undergo federal name-based criminal history searches within 15 days, with state and national criminal history records checks to follow, and permits immediate child removal if an individual refuses to provide fingerprints or identifying information.

• Allows the Department of Children and Families Commissioner to grant waivers from foster care regulations on a case-by-case basis for emergency placements with relatives or fictive kin caregivers, except for safety-related standards, with written documentation required.

• Updates definitions and procedures related to urgent crisis centers for children's mental and behavioral health services and modifies newborn care guidelines to use gender-neutral language ("birth parents" instead of "mothers").