HB 345 Summary: Lambourg Keep Families United Act

• Requires caseworkers and volunteers to photograph children during visitations and immediately submit photos and reports to all case parties, foster parents, and the court, subject to equipment availability.

• Changes permanency goal preference order to prioritize adoption first, followed by reunification, and requires permanency hearings scheduled to enable children to achieve permanency within 12 months of removal from home.

• Establishes quarterly county reporting on children entering care and achieving permanency goals, with financial consequences for counties where children fail to achieve permanency within 12 months.

• Limits diligent search periods for living relatives to 90 days after child enters care and for unmarried biological fathers to 60 days when mother files an affidavit within 30 days of child entering care.

• Restricts removal of children from licensed foster parents or court-ordered custodians who have applied to adopt, except when child faces imminent risk of abuse/neglect, 30 days pass without challenge to adoption denial, or foster parent consents to removal.