Legislature(2013 - 2014)CAPITOL 106
02/07/2013 03:00 PM House HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Children's Justice Act (cja) Task Force | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | HB 54 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
February 7, 2013
3:04 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Pete Higgins, Chair
Representative Wes Keller, Vice Chair
Representative Benjamin Nageak
Representative Lance Pruitt
Representative Lora Reinbold
Representative Paul Seaton
Representative Geran Tarr
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
OVERVIEW: CHILDREN'S JUSTICE ACT (CJA) TASK FORCE
- HEARD
HOUSE BILL NO. 54
"An Act relating to the identification, location, and
notification of specified family members of a child who is in
state custody."
- SCHEDULED BUT NOT HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
JAN RUTHERDALE, Chair
Alaska Children's Justice Act Task Force
Senior Assistant Attorney General
Child Protection Section
Civil Division (Juneau)
Department of Law (DOL)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified and answered questions during the
Overview of the Children's Justice Act (CJA) Task Force.
CATHY BALDWIN-JOHNSON, Medical Director
Alaska CARES
The Children's Place
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented a PowerPoint, titled "Alaska
Children's Justice Act Task Force."
THOM JANIDLO, Vice-Chair
Alaska Children's Justice Act Task Force
Attorney at Law
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented a PowerPoint, titled "Alaska
Children's Justice Act Task Force."
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:04:35 PM
CHAIR PETE HIGGINS called the House Health and Social Services
Standing Committee meeting to order at 3:04 p.m.
Representatives Higgins, Nageak, Keller, Tarr, Seaton, and
Reinbold were present at the call to order. Representative
Pruitt arrived as the meeting was in progress.
^OVERVIEW: Children's Justice Act (CJA) Task Force
OVERVIEW: Children's Justice Act (CJA) Task Force
3:06:12 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS announced that the only order of business would be
an Overview from the Children's Justice Act (CJA) Task Force.
3:06:37 PM
JAN RUTHERDALE, Chair, Alaska Children's Justice Act Task Force,
Senior Assistant Attorney General, Child Protection Section,
Civil Division (Juneau), Department of Law (DOL), directed
attention to the two packets, "Alaska Children's Justice Act
Task Force" and "Overview of the Alaska Children's Justice Act
Task Force" [Included in members' packets] and said that these
described the mission, the projects, and the membership of the
task force. She noted that these also included a more complete
description of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) project.
She said that they would first focus on child maltreatment in
Alaska and why it mattered to all of us, and then discuss the
legislative changes proposed by the task force. She noted that,
although the task force had presented to the Legislature for
many years, last year they had also proposed legislation to be
considered.
3:11:58 PM
CATHY BALDWIN-JOHNSON, Medical Director, Alaska CARES, The
Children's Place, introduced slide 3, "Alaskan Children in
Danger." Moving on to slide 4, "Data Sources," she said that
this information on the Office of Children's Services (OCS)
website was very up to date. She moved on to slide 5,
"Maltreatment- All Types," and shared that, in 2012, there were
more than 16,000 reports of Alaskan children as victims of at
least one incident of maltreatment. She pointed out that this
was as many as 44 children a day, which would, on average,
include 25 incidences for neglect, 7 for mental injury or
exposure to domestic violence, 5 for physical abuse, and 2 for
in-home sexual abuse. She noted that these numbers did not
include out-of-home sexual abuse, and was likely a gross
underestimation.
3:14:02 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON directed attention to slide 6, "Overall 171
% of National Average," and said that, although still very high,
this was an improvement over prior years. She indicated slide
7, "What does this mean for Alaskans?" and slide 8,
"Consequences." She explained that maltreatment included
physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, exposure to domestic
violence, and drug endangerment, and that the consequences could
be physical, psychological, behavioral, societal, both short and
long term, and could have effects throughout the lifespan.
3:14:52 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON stated that a short term impact was child
death, slide 9, "Maltreatment-Related Child Deaths" and said
that one in five Alaskan child deaths was maltreatment related,
either abuse or neglect. She presented slide 10, "Child & Teen
death in Alaska," a graph which depicted the higher rate in
Alaska, with homicide being the fourth leading cause of death
for Alaskan children. In response to Chair Higgins, she
clarified that this was solely homicide, and did not include
suicide.
3:15:55 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON, indicating slide 11, "Violent death of
teens in Alaska," said that this often combined suicide,
homicide, and violent accidents, and that the rate was
significantly higher in Alaska. She relayed that there were
direct and indirect costs: costs for child protection and
criminal justice systems, loss of future earnings and
productivity during adulthood, and medical and mental health
care costs, slide 12, "What does this cost?"
3:17:14 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON reported that the estimated cost was $220
million a day, or $80 billion each year, slide 13, "Total Annual
Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect in the US." She noted that the
struggle to pay for increasing health care costs needed to
address the underlying causes, slide 14, "Health Care Costs."
3:17:53 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON moved on to slide 15, "The Adverse Childhood
Experiences (ACE) Study," and explained that this landmark
research project was a collaboration between researchers at the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente, a
health maintenance organization (HMO) in California. She said
that the first published article was titled, "Turning Gold into
Lead," as it discussed the lifelong adverse effects from the
abuse of children. She explained the study, noting that it
involved more than 17,000 employed participants, almost the same
ratio of men to women, with the majority being white, middle
aged, and college educated, slide 16, "ACE Study Description."
3:19:06 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON said that the study asked questions of the
participants regarding their life growing up, slide 17, "Adverse
Childhood Experiences During 1st 18 years of life." These
included questions regarding any history of different abuse,
family dysfunction, substance abuse, violence in the home, and
neglect, and asked if any of these had happened at least once,
slide 18, "Adverse Childhood Experiences." For every incident,
each participant was given a score of one, so that sexual abuse
and witnessing domestic violence would each have a score of one.
3:19:59 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON observed that it was not uncommon for kids
to be exposed to many things, slide 19, "ACEs are common,"
noting that 28 percent had been physically abused as kids, and
an astounding number had been sexually abused. She reported
that only 36 percent of the participants had not had any of
these experiences, while 12.5 percent had experienced more than
four categories of family dysfunction or abuse, slide 20, "ACE
Scores." She observed that the higher the ACE score, the more
likely to suffer from adverse health consequences, slide 21,
"Results."
3:21:17 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON directed attention to slide 22, "ACE Score
vs. Smoking;" slide 23, "ACE Score vs. Alcoholism;" slide 24,
"ACE Score vs. Ever Ingested Drugs;" slide 25, "ACE Score vs.
Depression;" and slide 26, "ACE Score vs. Ever Attempted
Suicide." She said that the correlation of a higher ACE score
with a higher incidence was true throughout.
3:21:49 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON identified slide 27, "ACE Score vs BMI;"
slide 28, "ACE Score vs Sedentary Lifestyle;" and slide 29, "ACE
Score vs Chronic Disease," stating that all of these reflected a
significant graded relationship.
3:22:40 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON stated that heart disease was the leading
cause of death for men and women in the United States, and she
noted that the significant correlation with ACE created an even
stronger relationship than traditional risk factors, such as
high blood pressure, diabetes, or smoking, slide 30, "ACE Score
& Heart Disease."
3:23:14 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON shared that there were links between higher
ACE scores and reproductive health problems, mental health
problems, auto-immune diseases, fractures, work productivity,
and future victimization, slide 31, "More ACE links."
3:23:39 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON cited that other research had similar
findings, slide 32, "Sampling of other confirmatory research."
She described a study of adolescent suicide attempts which
reported that children who had been physically abused were five
times more likely to commit suicide, while sexually abused
children were three times more likely, slide 33, "Adolescent
suicide attempts." She communicated the significant correlation
between bad things happening in childhood with more bad things
happening in adulthood, slide 34, "Revictimization & substance
use."
3:24:52 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON discussed a 30 year study which found a
correlation between childhood physical abuse and adult obesity,
even when other factors such as genetic disposition were
controlled, slide 35, "Adult obesity." Summarizing slide 36,
"Evidence from ACE study suggests:" she stated that adverse
childhood experiences should be considered as one of the most
basic causes of health risk behavior, illness, premature death,
and increased health care cost.
3:25:36 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON moved on to slide 37, "Next Questions:" and
said that this connection was probably multi-factorial, as there
was the impact of toxic stress on brain development, impacts on
the immune system, and the question of epigenetics, the study of
how genes are turned on or turned off, and expressed.
3:26:57 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON presented slide 38, "Mechanisms..." and,
pointing to the top of the pyramid graphic, explained that the
traditional approach for time and resources was toward disease,
disability, high risk behaviors, and social problems. She
declared that the concentration of efforts would be more
effective toward the outsized base of the pyramid, adverse
childhood experiences. She emphasized that prevention through
earlier identification and intervention would be far more
effective.
3:27:39 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON jumped to slide 40, "Support for Child
Advocacy Center Funding" and slide 41, "Alaska CACs." She
informed the committee that the child advocacy centers (CACs)
had been an effective means for providing services and support
for children and their families during times of concern for
child physical and sexual abuse. She reported that the first
CAC opened in 1996 in Alaska, first received federal funding in
2001, and, beginning in 2008, obtained funding from the State of
Alaska. She stated that there were now 10 CACs, with an
additional 2 satellites, and they had served more than 18,000
children. She pointed out that state funding had remained flat
despite the significant increase in CAC utilization and
expansion of services.
3:29:02 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON presented slide 42, "Recommendations," and
declared that the CACs had requested an increase in funding to
$520,000, although the Governor's current budget allocation was
only for $400,000. She considered slide 43, "Support for HB
22/SB 73," and requested support for these companion bills,
which included stronger provisions against sex trafficking,
sentencing provisions for investigations of exploitation of
child abuse images, expansion of admission of evidence of prior
bad acts, and a statutory revision for the definition of
mandatory reporter.
3:30:39 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked about the impacts from adverse health
effects to performance in school.
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON, replying that most of the slides reflected
health consequences, expressed her agreement that there was
clear evidence that childhood stresses affected the ability to
learn.
3:31:47 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NAGEAK asked how long the respondents were
tracked for the ACE study.
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON, in response, said that different studies
had looked at various age groups. She said the aforementioned
ACE study had followed adults for 20 years in adulthood, but
that there had also been a range of other studies.
3:34:10 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked for more information regarding the
compilation for the ACE score. He questioned whether kids
attending a CAC would have the same scores as those who did not
receive this treatment.
3:35:34 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON pointed out that CACs were not in existence
until the mid-1970s, so the study was done on actions from
decades earlier. She agreed that the impact from CACs was still
unknown, though she expressed anecdotal data that kids were
benefiting from the CACs.
3:37:00 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked to receive a budget breakdown for the
funding request.
3:37:24 PM
THOM JANIDLO, Vice-Chair, Alaska Children's Justice Act Task
Force, Attorney at Law, said there were not many child
protective laws in place until the late 1960s.
3:38:43 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON expressed his concern that it was unclear
whether the CAC services had resulted in a reduction to any
problems.
3:39:53 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON replied that there were fewer reports of
child sexual abuse for both Alaska and the nation, and it was
theorized that more advocacy centers similar to CACs, coupled
with better laws, had resulted in a drop of abuse.
3:41:31 PM
MR. JANIDLO directed attention to slide 44, "System
Improvement...", slide 45, "Recommendation #1," and slide 46,
"Mandatory Reporting: Background." He declared that the mission
of the task force was to provide recommendations, and he
clarified that, currently, there was a mandatory reporting
statute in all the states.
3:43:07 PM
MR. JANIDLO provided slide 47, "Problems:" and stated that
research showed that child abuse was still underreported, and
that there was still confusion about who was required to report.
He noted that, although Alaska law required certain
professionals to report, it did not include many adults with
daily contact with children. He noted that emergency medical
technicians (EMT) did not have to report, and yet, they were
often the first responder to an incidence of child abuse. It
was often unclear not only who had to report, but who they had
to report to, and that often people were reluctant to report.
He shared that almost 33 percent of the states required that
anyone with reasonable cause to suspect child abuse had to
report.
3:46:15 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked for a definition to a mandatory reporter.
MR. JANIDLO explained that, under the current law, professionals
in contact with children had a duty to report any reasonable
belief that a child was being abused. He opined that in Alaska
everyone was responsible to report any reasonable belief of
child abuse, slide 48.
3:48:17 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KELLER asked if there was evidence that mandatory
reporting had significantly lowered the incidence of child
abuse.
MR. JANIDLO, in response to Representative Keller, said that the
Children's Justice Act Task Force was in support of all citizens
being responsible for mandatory reporting.
3:48:43 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked if there were any re-education programs on
reporting for health professionals.
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON replied that this was ongoing training.
3:49:25 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE explained that the task force budget was
population based, and it was necessary to make project choices.
She declared that, as understanding mandatory reporting was so
necessary, the task force decided to create and distribute a CD
about the program. She added that the Office of Children's
Services (OCS) also used and disseminated the CD.
3:50:52 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS shared some professional anecdotal incidences of
child dental neglect, and emphasized the need for the continuing
education of health care professionals.
3:51:41 PM
MR. JANIDLO said that the goal was to protect kids, and to take
responsibility as adults.
3:52:12 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON expressed his agreement with all the
statements regarding abuse, but he pointed out that Alaska
statutes referred to "abuse or neglect," and that "neglect" was
a state-wide standard which did not take into account a
situation, such as inadequate clothing. He opined that it was
necessary to advocate for mandatory reporting of abuse, but that
there needed to be definitions for levels of neglect. He
declared that he did not want to have unintended consequences
from a legal definition of neglect.
3:54:18 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE explained to Representative Seaton that the law
clarified that poverty was not neglect. She established that a
report to OCS for a reasonable suspicion of harm allowed for
experienced staff to determine whether an investigation was
necessary. She said that a very small percentage of
investigations went to legal action.
3:56:20 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON declared that the question was whether
people were in violation for not reporting and that it was
necessary to better define the standard for neglect.
3:57:35 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE agreed that it was a training issue to better
understand mandatory reporting for a "reasonable cause to
suspect."
3:57:53 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS shared that he had used the threat for reporting
of neglect, but he pointed out that the definition for neglect
and abuse was unclear to many health care professionals.
3:58:29 PM
MR. JANIDLO declared that Alaska still had one of the highest
rates of child abuse in the nation, 171 percent of the rest of
the country. He opined that Alaska should be leading the rest
of the country as the state did not have so many of the old laws
to deal with. He endorsed that all Alaskans should be
responsible for reporting child abuse, slide 49.
3:59:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD commented that it was necessary to
define abuse. She declared that she did not see any statistics
that intervention and mandatory reporting was working. She
considered that abuse was interpreted differently in different
cultures. She offered her belief that it was very important to
focus on the serious at-risk cases, and that the best
intervention was from friends. She offered her belief that
government officials could cause more trauma, and would demand
more reporting, more exposure, and more involvement, as opposed
to a confidential, safe, gentle intervention. She opined that
this gentle intervention in high risk areas was "so much more
effective than a big bureaucracy that really doesn't look
statistically like their doing much good."
4:01:05 PM
MR. JANIDLO expressed his agreement that if everyone watched out
for their neighbor, then many of the laws would not be
necessary.
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD replied, "there's a lot of wonderful
parents... we do have wonderful people all over the place, and
interventions that are free all over."
MR. JANIDLO expressed his agreement that everyone wanted kids to
have the necessary safety and protection. He declared that
intervention was only necessary where there was reasonable cause
for concern for the child's safety.
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD asked if reporting was helping with
positive outcomes, and not creating more problems.
4:03:05 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked to clarify that mandatory reporting
was for seeing abuse or neglect, and that there would be
violation of the statute, even if you intervened, if you did not
report.
4:04:19 PM
MR. JANIDLO offered his belief that there were fewer children
being taken into custody because there were more programs to
help before there was abuse.
4:05:07 PM
MR. JANIDLO moved on to slide 50, "Alternate Solution:" which he
described as an addition to the patchwork to fill in the
reporting gaps. He indicated slide 51, "First Responders," and
listed that first responders, fire fighters, and emergency
medical personnel should be added to the mandatory reporter
list. He listed social workers, juvenile justice personnel,
court appointed advocates, and guardian ad litems, as mandatory
reporters, slide 52, "Social Services Personnel."
4:06:44 PM
MR. JANIDLO indicated slide 53, "Veterinarians and animal
control officers," and shared that studies linked animal abuse
and child abuse, so animal control officers should also be
included as mandatory reporters.
4:07:30 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS asked what were the consequences for not
reporting.
MR. JANIDLO replied that not reporting was a Class A
misdemeanor, but he clarified that no professionals had been
prosecuted. He stated that the objective was as an incentive to
report.
4:08:32 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked if there had been previous legislation
for this.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON replied that he remembered debate
revolving around the parameters of neglect. He said that part
of the perspective was for the legislature to pass laws that
people obey, and there needed to be consequences, otherwise it
became a bad system.
4:10:07 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS opined that the rights and liberties of people
were taken away under the guise of safety.
4:10:24 PM
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD reflected on successful interventions by
youth, and expressed her concern for the unintended consequences
of adult interventions, which raised her concern for mandatory
reporting.
4:11:42 PM
MR. JANIDLO said that the first child abuse came through a
cruelty to animals' case, because there were not any laws about
abusing children in the 1870s. He declared that clergy needed
to be added to the list for mandatory reporting, as they often
had access to information, slide 54, "Clergy." He moved on to
slide 55, "Persons providing instruction and coaching to
children," and noted that coaches, music teachers, and others
needed to help stop the abuse.
4:13:51 PM
MR. JANIDLO declared that slide 56, "Certain other volunteers,"
also needed to be added to the mandatory reporters list, as they
often came in frequent contact with children. He reminded the
committee that this addition to the list was an alternative to
making it mandatory for everyone to report abuse. He
established that the second recommendation from the task force
was to update the current statute concerning medical evaluations
of suspected child abuse, slide 57.
4:14:53 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON reviewed slide 58, "Problem:", and explained
that the law for diagnostic testing in suspected child abuse
cases was limited to x-rays and photographs, and did not include
other tests, such as CT scans and MRIs, which were more accurate
and less invasive, and could help differentiate between abuse
and non-abuse. She noted that parents were not always available
or cooperative.
4:16:08 PM
MR. JANIDLO, slide 59, "Solution:" suggested that modernizing AS
47.17.64 would allow the necessary testing of abused children
with current technologies. He moved on to the "Recommendation
#3," slide 60, which would add a new section to the criminal
code regarding children's exposure to domestic violence. He
explained that the "Problem:", slide 61, was that children who
were exposed to domestic violence were subject to the same
outcomes as children directly experiencing abuse, and it was not
a crime. He suggested to add and define a new section to the
Alaska Criminal Code making it unlawful to expose a child to
domestic violence, slide 62, "Solution:" He noted that
Anchorage already had this in place.
MR. JANIDLO announced that the fourth recommendation was to add
victim protections to the criminal and child protection laws,
slide 63, "Recommendation #4." He explained that the problem
was with the information exchange during the discovery process,
when mental health interviews and forensic interviews had ended
up in the wrong hands, slide 64, "Problem:" He suggested to
make it a crime for unauthorized publication of a victim's
protected material, to modify the rules of discovery in criminal
and child protection cases regarding redistribution of protected
materials, and to protect mental health records of a victim,
slide 65, "Solution:"
4:19:34 PM
MR. JANIDLO summarized and said that the task force supported
increased funding for CACs, supported the proposed
aforementioned legislation, HB 73 and SB 22, recommended making
all Alaskans responsible to report child abuse, recommended
modernizing the statute for medical evaluation and making it
unlawful to expose a child to domestic violence, and protecting
children from further victimization in the discovery process,
slide 66, "Summary of Recommendations." He declared that the
task force was looking for champions for Alaskan children, as
everyone was responsible for them.
4:21:12 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON, referring to "CJATF Proposed Legislation"
[Included in members' packets], asked about the proposed
legislation on page 4, line 15. He asked who the financially
obligated party was if a doctor decided to have tests on the
child.
4:22:14 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON, in response to Representative Seaton, said
that the responsible payer could be the parent or the third
party payer, insurance or Medicaid; however, if the child was
taken into custody, then the state would be responsible, as the
guardian of the child.
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON, in response to Representative Seaton,
clarified that this was only if the parent was not available or
would not supply consent if the tests had indicated reasonable
cause.
4:23:07 PM
MR. JANIDLO pointed out that this was current law, and the
proposed legislation was only adding imaging studies and
diagnostic testing to the existing law.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON pointed out that this proposed legislation
was adding more expensive procedures.
4:24:04 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON clarified that the proposed legislation was
only updating to include current technology.
4:24:08 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KELLER endorsed the membership list for the task
force, noting that it was impressive and included a broad
spectrum of knowledge which offered an excellent resource. He
offered his assumption that there were no salaries paid to its
members. He expressed his appreciation for the recommendation
to expand the CACs, although he questioned whether there was
significant data to "really make a really hard core case for
their success." He expressed his suspicions about the vetting
process for the proposed legislation. He asked who proposed the
legislation, if everyone on the task force had submitted
comments, and if it had been influenced by national advocacy
groups. He requested more background on the process.
4:25:52 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE replied that, during brainstorming sessions for
improvement to the programs, "mandatory reporting always rises
to the top of the list." She referenced the nationwide
awareness and discussion for mandatory reporting since the
revelations about child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky at Penn
State University. She specified that the majority of the work
came from the task force's review of the statutes and
discussions based on personal experience about "where the gaps
lay."
4:27:13 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON pointed out that, as the task force had
statewide multi-disciplinary representation, there were others
who offered information. She shared an example from the EMS
personnel, who had disclosed that they were not on the
practitioners of the healing arts mandatory reporting list.
4:27:59 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KELLER, directing attention to the $80-90,000
budget for the task force which included payment for trainings
and part-time staff, asked how often the task force met and if
it was paid for from "the meager budget that you have and the
grant." He asked if the meetings were broadcast and open to the
public.
4:28:49 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE replied that anyone was welcome to attend the
meetings, and that the task force did invite outside speakers.
She pointed out that there were subcommittee meetings and
teleconferences, in addition to the quarterly meetings. She
disclosed that the cost for the teleconferences was also paid
from the budget. She reported that the committee which prepared
this presentation had been meeting weekly.
4:29:30 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON directed attention to page 3 of the
Proposed CJATF Alternative to Universal Reporting [Included in
members' packets], and asked to clarify that the intent was for
any report to be submitted to the Department of Health and
Social Services.
MS. RUTHERDALE replied that this was existing law, and that this
proposal merely clarified that the reporting had to be to the
Office of Children's Services (OCS), in the Department of Health
and Social Services.
4:31:13 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON directed attention to page 4, proposed
Section 7, and asked who was included as "regular volunteers of
the church or religious body."
4:31:38 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE explained that this definition was modeled on
evidence rules, and she could research further for who was
included.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON surmised that it could be any volunteers
at a church.
MS. RUTHERDALE expressed her agreement.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if this was the intent of the
proposal.
MS. RUTHERDALE stated that this was clarified on page 4 to
include those who "supervise, educate, coach, train, or counsel
children."
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked to clarify whether "and persons
employed" also included the volunteers.
MS. RUTHERDALE agreed that there would need to be further
legislative clarity, even though the task force had worked to
"make as shovel ready as possible."
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON analyzed that the intent was for
volunteers to be analogous with persons employed, but only to
include those volunteers who supervise, educate, coach, train,
or counsel children.
MS. RUTHERDALE expressed her agreement with this analysis.
4:34:09 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR shared a personal anecdote, and expressed
her appreciation to the task force presenters and to
Representative Reinbold for her comments about keeping families
together. She asked for details to the CAC process.
4:35:16 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON explained that the CACs provided a neutral
locale, when there was an allegation of abuse, for the agencies
involved with evaluation of a child to bring their resources to
the child. She noted that most children at the CAC were
referred by Office of Children's Services (OCS), medical
providers, or law enforcement when a complaint had been made.
She shared that a child, when old enough, would be interviewed
by a person trained in forensic interviews with children. There
would be a medical evaluation, if appropriate, by a medical
provider specially trained for evaluating children for abuse; a
psycho-social evaluation for the child, and an evaluation for
the needs of the family; and ongoing support for the family
through the follow up process. She communicated that the CAC
would coordinate the team for case review and ongoing tracking.
4:37:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR asked if a parent could access the resources
of CAC without a complaint, in order to better understand any
cultural differences which could result in reported incidents.
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON replied that this was not part of the core
services provided by the CAC program. She offered her belief
that some CACs could have community outreach and support
programs for parents.
4:38:38 PM
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD asked to clarify her earlier comments
about organizations that served youth. She noted that youth
would share with someone they trusted, and if the incident was
then reported, the youth could be banned from future outings by
their family for exposing these abuses. She declared her desire
to ensure that kids who were not getting help were cared for and
given the opportunity to talk. She expressed her concern for
doing more damage than good. She asked for the effects from
this proposed legislation on the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.
4:39:48 PM
MS. RUTHERDALE clarified that the proposed legislation would
restrict the number of people with access to the information,
which was compatible with HIPAA.
MR. JANIDLO, in response to Representative Reinbold, said that
medical records were already being released to the relevant
agencies, but remained confidential during the discovery
process, so this was all in compliance with HIPAA.
4:40:47 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON reported that he had visited the CAC in
Homer, and he declared that it was a really enlightening
experience. He pointed out that, whereas most state troopers
were intimidating and not adequately trained to interview a
child, the CAC was well trained and very child friendly. He
questioned whether the CAC became directly involved when a
medical provider had a concern for a child abuse, and if this
would bypass the Department of Health and Social Services.
4:42:40 PM
DR. BALDWIN-JOHNSON explained that the CAC notified OCS if there
was a medical referral, and then OCS and law enforcement would
determine whether to become immediately involved, or, depending
on the nature of the complaint, to wait for completion of a
medical examination. She noted that this situation most often
involved pre-verbal children.
4:43:38 PM
CHAIR HIGGINS declared that children are the most valuable
resource.
4:44:26 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Health and Social Services Standing Committee meeting was
adjourned at 4:44 p.m.
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