Last Thursday the Maine Legislature killed LD 1919, which would have criminalized a failure to report suspected child abuse or neglect, and passed several other bills seeking to change the way the State of Maine deals with such cases.

LD 1919: Criminal penalties for failure of mandated reporters to report. In addition to the MMA's Gordon Smith, Dr. Genevieve Whiting and Dr. Syd Sewall testified to the Committee, and Dr. Deb Hagler also submitted written testimony. Of approximately 30 witnesses (not counting several legislators), only one favored criminalization. The Health & Human Services Committee voted “Ought Not To Pass” 8-2. On the floor of the House the vote was 72-53 against the bill, and it was defeated "under the hammer" in the Senate.

LD 1920: Record retention in unsubstantiated cases. There was much discussion about what a finding of “unsubstantiated” means and of various time periods. The current law allows the records to be kept for 18 months, and the bill, which was the subject of a 7-1 “Ought To Pass” Committee vote,  was amended to extend the time to 5 years. It passed both the House (68-50) and Senate.

LD 1921: Authorizing access to confidential criminal history records. Committee vote was unanimous “Ought To Pass.” It passed both House and Senate.

LD 1922: Ensuring that “best interest of the child” is a higher priority than “family reunification.” Discussion led to the conclusion that this bill would not really accomplish anything different from what is already happening. The vote was 5-3 “Ought Not To Pass." There was significant discussion in both House and Senate which resulted in a 26-4 vote for passage in the Senate. In the House, a motion that the bill not pass was defeated 46-74, after which the bill was passed.

LD 1923: This is a $23M funding bill with multiple sub-parts. Unanimous approval was given to the following parts:

• Increase reimbursement for foster care
• Purchase a new computer system
• $5 per hour raise for caseworkers and $1 per hour raise for those obtaining a master’s degree
• Pilot program to provide supportive and supervised visitation with relatives and evaluation of parental capacity
• Clinical support and guidance of caseworker practice, including direct clinical consultation, training, and debriefing
• The Department asked for 16 new Casework Supervisor positions and 2 new Regional Associate Director for Child Welfare positions, but no new caseworkers or case aides. Caseworkers have been stressing the need for increased numbers to lower a difficult caseload, and recently former Commissioner Hamilton has told OPEGA that 75 new caseworkers are needed. The Department representative, Acting Director of Child & Family Services Kirsten Capeless, said they need supervisors to help new caseworkers learn their jobs, so there is no sense hiring caseworkers until such administrative personnel are in place. By a 6-2 vote, the Committee approved an amended version of the bill that would give the Department what it asked for but add 16 caseworker positions and 8 case aide positions.

 All in all, it was a good week for children and for the MMA at the Maine Legislature.