To provide support for youth and families experiencing severe conflict, HB 2870 creates a public system response that merges the ‘At-Risk Youth Services’ and ‘Child In Need Of Services’ petitions into the ‘Family In Need Of Services (FINS) petition.’
The FINS response will provide:
•A legal process for families experiencing crisis to request and receive prompt assistance from juvenile courts;
•Assessment, case management, and interventions to preserve, strengthen, and reconcile families experiencing crisis;
•Residential placement and therapeutic support for youth in need of basic assistance;
•Services and interventions for the parent if issues prevent safe reconciliation of the family; and
•Ongoing assessment of program effectiveness
The proposed legislation defines the circumstances and people who can file a ‘Family In Need Of Services petition, ’ as well as procedural requirements and exceptions. It also repeals previous related RCW.
Companion: HB2870
As amended by the Human Services & Corrections committee the bill is updated:
• Creates a three-county pilot program administered by the Office of Homeless Youth Prevention and Protection Programs (OHY), the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), and the Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ), in consultation with the state Center for Court Research to site more secure crisis residential centers (CRC) in the selected counties and expands family services through community truancy boards (CTB) to prevent non-offender youth from entering the juvenile court system
• Creates a preference for the three counties selected to those with the highest use of detention, the highest propensity to use a valid court order, that have not implemented juvenile detention alternatives initiative (JDAI) strategies, and that do not have secure CRCs accessible or available
• Requires OHY to allocate funds to the selected counties to site secure CRCs that meet therapeutic standards and make them more accessible and available
• Requires OSPI to allocate funds to CTBs to provide evidence based services, including functional family therapy, when possible
• Requires OJJ to allocate funds to CTBs to provide families with case management services, including the use of JDAI, when possible
• Authorizes the CTBs to provide services directly or through contract
• Expires the pilot program on July 1, 2020
• Requires OHY, OSPI, and OJJ to submit a joint report to the legislature that includes statistics on number of youth placed in secure CRCs, the number receiving evidenced-based services or case management services, or both, and any legislative recommendations, by January 1, 2021
The enactment of the bill Is subject to specific funding for it in the supplemental budget.
