BOISE, ID – An Idaho Senate committee narrowly advanced a bill on Monday to expedite welfare checks in response to child protection reports on infants who face certain risk factors. Lawmakers brought the bill in response to the death of a 12-day-old infant named Benjamin, “Benji,” in Nampa.
Benjamin died after multiple reports were made regarding the parents’ documented history of criminal injury to other children, including having their parental rights terminated for their five previous children, KTVB reported.
Middleton Republican Sen. Tammy Nichols presented House Bill 776, which would require top prioritization of looking into reports of babies under the age of 12 months certain risk factors are present.
Nichols said Monday in the Senate State Affairs Committee meeting that Benji was born to parents with known child welfare concerns and reports had been made to CPS to check on him.
“This bill aims to close the gap in response time to prevent similar tragedies,” Nichols said.
Bill moves up timeline of when Idaho Department of Health and Welfare must investigate some child abuse reports
Nichols noted that the bill doesn’t provide social workers with any more authority than they currently have in code, but moves up the timeline in which they must investigate reports in particular circumstances.
Under the bill, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare would need to verify reported risk factors within 12 hours, and prioritize its response if verified.
The risk factors to require more timely action would be when the parent, guardian or legal custodian appears in the state’s child protection central registry for substantiated abuse, neglect or abandonment within 10 years; had parental rights on other children removed; and had their child born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, in which an infant experiences drug withdrawals at birth after exposure to substances in the womb.
The committee on Monday voted 5-3 to send the bill to the Senate floor for debate and vote by the full chamber. If passed, the bill will go to the governor for consideration.
Legislators opposed to bill said it empowers social workers to remove children from homes
The lawmakers who opposed the bill — Sens. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa; Josh Keyser, R-Meridian; and Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls — expressed concern that it would empower Child Protective Services, CPS, to remove children.
“What I’m seeing here, big picture, is an administrative agency accumulating power by using sympathetic framing,” Lenney said at the meeting. “‘It’s for the kids,’ well I’ve learned something the last few years. You can get almost anything passed in this building if you say it’s for the kids … I think this kind of helps IDHW play God mode.”
Zuiderveld had similar concerns that the bill would potentially put “more families at harm.”
Both of them mentioned a situation in which CPS in 2022 removed a 10-month-old baby from his parents after suspected malnourishment, according to the Meridian Police Department at the time. The child was returned to the parents after one week, during which there were protests led by then-gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy outside the hospital where the child was kept, the Idaho Statesman Reported. The baby’s grandfather, Diego Rodriguez, spoke about the situation at an Idaho Freedom Foundation event at the Capitol in February.
Advocates say bill could help Idaho children in abusive home environments
All nine people who testified Monday were in favor of the bill, all of them arguing that Benjamin’s death may have been prevented and that it wasn’t an isolated incident. Several of the testifiers also spoke in support of HB 776 during the House committee meeting.
Kylie Billingsley, a psychologist, said there have been reported cases in Canyon County of infants entering foster care with fractured skulls.
“If infants are entering care after serious injury, it does mean that the system is intervening later than it should,” she said.
David Gomez, a Boise County Sheriff’s Office deputy, said he was involved in the removal of some of Benjamin’s older siblings. He said in the past five years, he’s had cases where two babies died before they could be removed from the home and others that likely would’ve if they hadn’t been taken into state care.
“Baby Benjamin’s older sibling probably would have died without intervention,” Gomez said, “so it is not a one time thing.”
The bill will go to the Senate floor for further consideration.
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