2025 bills / S.B. 297
S.B. 297 Congregate Care Amendments (2025)
- Introduced
- Senate committee
- Senate vote
- House committee
- House vote
- Signed into law
What this bill does
AI summary from the official description
The bill creates a state advisory committee and a congregate care ombudsman who can receive and investigate reports about congregate care programs. It requires those programs to adopt admissions criteria, keep lists of children's authorized contacts, notify contacts and parents when a child is in crisis, post notice about the ombudsman, and provide a phone line to reach the ombudsman, and it sets minimum safety rules and a civil penalty fund.
About this summary
Quotes come from the official recordings' automatic captions, and plain-English summaries are written by AI from the official record. A person reviews them, but always check the recording before quoting anyone; every quote links to its moment in the video.
Check the official text below.
Official description
- defines terms
- creates the Congregate Care Advisory Committee (committee)
- authorizes and directs the Office of Licensing (office), in consultation with the committee, to:
- set minimum safety requirements for congregate care programs
- review proposed admissions criteria that a program submits in connection with an application for or renewal of licensure
- deny or accept a program's proposed admissions criteria
- creates the position of congregate care ombudsman (ombudsman)
- authorizes and directs the ombudsman to receive and investigate reports regarding congregate care programs
- creates the Licensed Provider Civil Money Penalty Fund
- denies direct access qualified status for certain individuals
- establishes requirements for congregate care programs, including that the programs:
- adopt admissions criteria by which to determine whether an individual child is a qualified candidate for the program
- maintain a list of a child's authorized contacts who may contact the child if the child is in crisis
- notify the authorized contacts and the parent or guardian of a child who is in crisis
- post notice within the program regarding the ombudsman
- provide a dedicated telephone from which a child or staff may contact the ombudsman at any time
- provide disclosures to a child, the child's parent or guardian, and the child's authorized contacts
- establishes responsibility for payment to a health care facility that provides services to a child, including transportation costs
- establishes whistleblower protections for individuals who report a concern to, or who facilitate or cooperate with, the ombudsman
- makes technical changes
Your legislators on this bill
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What members get
- An alert the day S.B. 297 is put on a committee agenda, with time and room, so you can be there to speak
- When S.B. 297 is rewritten, exactly which words changed
- Its hearings in your own calendar
- Your own scorecard: pick the side you favor and see how every legislator voted
Every vote
- 7 yes, 0 no, 2 absentSenate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee: vote to change the bill · Feb 21, 2025Who voted how
- 8 yes, 0 no, 1 absentSenate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee: vote to approve it · Feb 21, 2025Who voted how
- 24 yes, 3 no, 2 absentFirst of two Senate votes · Feb 27, 2025Who voted how
- 19 yes, 6 no, 4 absentFinal Senate vote · Feb 28, 2025Who voted how
- 9 yes, 0 no, 5 absentHouse Health and Human Services Committee: vote to change the bill · Mar 4, 2025Who voted how
- 10 yes, 0 no, 4 absentHouse Health and Human Services Committee: vote to approve it · Mar 4, 2025Who voted how
- 53 yes, 19 no, 3 absentFinal House vote · Mar 5, 2025Who voted how
- 27 yes, 1 no, 1 absentSenate vote to accept the other chamber's changes · Mar 5, 2025Who voted how