1/27/2026 Senate committee on Children & Families
Video Transcript
Duration: 45 minutes
Speakers: 10
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the children families committee's first meeting.
I wanna introduce you to Daley Kennedy. She's my new assistant.
And Carly Daniel over there, she's, the intern for the committee. And then we have lots of great staff here from Senate Press, Senate Legislative Council,
and the office of policy and legislative analysis. So thanks to everybody for being here.
Before we start, I'm gonna ask senator Payne to open us with a devotion.
Thank you. If you would just let us pray.
Dear heavenly father, we thank you, lord, for so many things and all things that you give to us sleep freely.
Well, we thank you for this time together. We get to work to better the
conditions for children and families across our state. Lord, we just ask you to lead us and guide us in all things that we do, that all things
that may be accomplished will be accomplished
as part of your glory.
Lord, in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Thank you, senator.
For those who don't know,
we had a study committee
this summer
on kids aging out of foster care and the very specific issues that they face.
And we came up with a number of recommendations
from that study committee, and I just want to let you all know that some of them are legislative and some of them are more convening the right people.
And all of those are moving forward at this time.
The one that involved a meeting with the Department of Housing and Urban Development was delayed by the government shutdown,
and then it was delayed again last week because of the,
concerns about travel and the weather from one of our people who was attending from the West Coast.
So
stay tuned. We'll be rolling out some exciting information that should help our kids in the foster care system.
One of the first things that we're gonna do is we're gonna start with Senate bill four zero two
today, and that is because one of our people who's testifying is a physician who's seeing patients, and she's making a window in her schedule.
So, senator Tillery, would you come up and talk to us about senate bill four zero two?
Thank you, madam chair. And, also, I wanna echo
the the praise of your staff. Kennedy's been awesome to work with already, so thank you for your help as we've worked even today to get this thing going. Do you want doctor Zena to go first since she's got c patients, or you want me to introduce it first? What would be your your preference? I think she's good for the next twenty minutes or so. So if you wanna walk us through the bill and then she can So you don't want me to read every word?
Suit yourself.
To amend chapter five I'm just kidding, madam chair. This this bill,
does not do away with the income tax on children or anything like that. It's just a straight bill that deals with children and family, and it's a it's a continuation of a pilot program that we started
last year,
two years ago rather. What we noticed was the we thought
anecdotally that there was a,
tie between children in our foster care system and autism. And what we actually noticed is that by running this pilot in Region 12, there's 14 regions in total, that children in our foster care system were six times more likely to have autism.
And now you end up with a chicken or an egg question, right?
Are they
in foster care because they had autism?
And that was why they had the issues with the family that they weren't getting the services that they needed. That's what we kinda think is the answer. So we wanna expand that pilot now to three more regions. That's what senate bill four zero two does.
This pilot program was ran with doctor Zena, who you have on the screen, visiting you virtually from her office in Statesboro.
What four zero two allows is the pilot program that was ran and sent in, District 12 to be replicated in three other districts. As appropriations allows, it costs about $451,000
per district to run this pilot in that area.
And then,
with the goal of going to all 14 regions,
over a series of years. That's all senate bill four zero two does.
Helps us to see if we can see that this correlation is more than just in one region
and then begin addressing it, with services that we hope helps us reduce the number of children we see in state custody.
Thank you. And there may be some questions, but I'd like to let doctor Zena
jump on and, speak to the bill and her experience so that she can get back to work.
Can you hear me, doctor Zena?
Yes, ma'am. I am. Okay. Floor is yours.
Thank you. And, I appreciate the opportunity to testify by by Zoom, and so do all the patients whose appointments did not have to be rescheduled.
So, for those who don't know, I'm a pediatrician
whose practice focuses on autism spectrum disorder, complex ADHD, and anxiety disorders.
And, while my practice is located in Bullock County, we see children from over 80 counties
and our catchment area is really evidence of the enormous need for more physicians to diagnose autism and accept Medicaid
and that's especially true for children in foster care. We sometimes see foster children who for their in person visit are traveling six or more hours by car to get to us.
So, foster children with undiagnosed autism are much more likely to have frequent changes in their placement
and they're more likely to have exasperating behaviors and more likely to be labeled defiant.
Children with autism a lot of times struggle with inflexible thinking
and it can be misinterpreted
as defiance,
but defiance is a choice.
And, a child with autism who refuses to eat ice cream because there's only a fork available
still wants the ice cream.
They just can't eat it with anything other than a spoon because they're so inflexible,
and once caregivers really understand this difference life gets much easier for the child and the caregiver.
Just last week, one of my patients got suspended for chewing gum in class. His teacher said
spit that gum out,
and he did, and then he put more gum in his mouth. And his mom, actually, he was adopted from foster care,
knew that he would have complied if the teacher had just said spit that gum out gum is not allowed,
but he's so literal
that
the implied
rule wasn't clear to him
and, many teenagers and adults with autism spectrum disorder tell me that they were always in trouble as kids, but they rarely knew what they did wrong and they learned not to ask because they usually got in more trouble because they were supposed to know.
And, if nobody understands what your skills deficits are, how can they improve help you improve those deficits?
When kids get access to appropriate services, their long term outcomes really improve,
and
when they get appropriate treatment,
the problem
behaviors that disrupt placements and result in foster kids moving to a new home or to a group home or ending up in a hotel
also dramatically decrease.
So
decreasing problem behaviors and improving stability both save money, reduce stress
for the child, but also for the case manager and the foster parents,
and this bill is going to allow us to
expand
and figure out more of the logistics of what do we need to do,
with the goal of ultimately screening all foster kids for autism statewide.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
Questions from the committee for doctor Zena?
Thank you so much for the work that you do. If you could hang in there in case anybody
thinks of anything for a few minutes, that'd be great.
And then,
questions for senator Tillery, chairman Tillery. I have one.
Actually, I have two. One is,
if you don't mind,
I know that you're very involved with the foster care system,
and I wondered if you could speak about that
briefly.
Yes, ma'am. Madam chair, it's not a secret. I don't think to this body that my wife and I,
have foster children. And just honestly, because her heart's a heck of a lot bigger than mine. And she's just an awesome lady.
And so those are kids in our home.
We've had issues in the past with some things concerning Medicaid payments.
And, we've had children that
may be at our house for a weekend who,
yeah. Let me tell you one of the saddest stories that we ever dealt with. We had two kids that were with us,
that were brought there from about 80 miles away.
And the foster care worker did a heck of a job. I remember that young man showing up at our house at 10:00 at nine.
He had two kids,
and they were brothers. And the older brother,
I don't diagnose autism. I can't tell you if he did or didn't. But I it it would be what
an attorney, I guess, would say probably a little like autism.
And the little brother was the one taking care of him. And if we turned off the lights in the room, he would scream and scream and scream. So we just slept with the lights on for a weekend.
Still, it was incredibly hard.
As you can imagine,
little brother's trying to take care of older brother.
Older brother
is
doesn't know how to react to us. We don't know how to react to him.
And we made it through that weekend together. And I say that to say,
when these services aren't available to families who are
living that twenty four seven,
it was hard for us to make it through a seventy two hour weekend.
I wanna make sure that we're in a position as much as possible
to help families
and their children
stay together when it's appropriate.
And I hope that this pilot allows us to advance that cause even further,
and appreciate the work that doctor Zena has has already done to to do that.
Okay. Let's see if the committee has
Center Payne?
They mentioned districts. Where do those districts derive from? Yeah. They're
why don't you ask me that question,
Chuck. I know that Region 12 that they
in my view, they follow mostly close to our regional commissions because Region 12 for me and my regional commission is the same that I am in my defense commission, but I don't I can't tell you that they match exactly. What we're looking at doing is finding three in different areas.
And senator Brass may tell you that he knows the answer to that if he does happy to hear it.
Sure. And there's a little history. A lot of these,
districts that we have out there were based on old congressional districts.
And then through the years, some groups
like
regional commission or defects, they would,
update the the district to match
the the current congressional district.
But, you know, not all did that, and and they may have done it, but did it
twenty years ago. So in most cases, they originated with a with a congressional district, and then it's as the congressional districts changed, not all the districts did.
So that's not I'm not I don't know that for certain on
on these particular districts, but
as a general norm, that's happened a lot. Well, I could tell you that we have 14 right now. So
I did have a question for the author. Oh, okay. Got it.
So when it comes to the are we are we letting the department decide the districts
that they will
go into? The the department with providers. So one of the things that we've seen, and we've done this many years as we funded
increased waivers that I know senator Harrell has been someone to champion,
is you can't fund a waiver when you don't have providers in the area.
So one of the things that we have to look at when we're picking the pilot areas,
the worst thing to give someone is hope without the ability to actually resolve it. So we're gonna be looking at regions that have the providers to fill that to.
But I I I don't need to be involved in that. I'm not trying to do a top down management. We didn't try to name the districts.
We wanna see if what we found in Region 12
replicates in three other places. And I honestly think after that, you probably then start developing policy. And four times you while this pilot allows us to go to all 14,
I don't I don't think we have to go to four out of 14 probably tells us that this is more than anecdotal.
Follow-up, madam chair, if you'll allow. Sure.
In the past, I've noticed that you,
you quite often vote against
bills that have an impact on the budget.
With this having an impact on the budget
and you carrying the bill, are you gonna be able to sleep at night?
Well, senator Brass, I voted for every budget. Now I'd vote that the budget itself has the most impact on the budget. I meant
bills.
So there have been now almost 16 budgets that I believe I voted for.
So Whatever.
Yeah. And this is one of the recommendations
from our study committee is that we expand this pilot. And as all of you know,
we budget annually, which doesn't always give us the opportunity to see the long term
ROI
of the projects that we're funding. But in this case,
we know that early intervention
and early treatment makes a difference with autism.
More questions from the committee?
We do have one person signed up to testify.
Mister Lockwood?
You guys, it's an honor to be here.
Thank you for having me here. My name is Peyton Lockwood. I am a volunteer advocate for Autism Speaks,
and I am here today providing oral testimony on behalf of Krista
Stevens who is,
our Autism Speaks director for state government affairs.
Thank you for the opportunity
to submit testimony in support of Senate Bill four zero two.
Autism Speaks is a national not for profit organization
dedicated to creating an inclusive world for all individuals with autism throughout their lifespan.
We do this through advocacy services, supports, research, and innovation,
and advances in care for autistic individuals
and their families.
Autism Speaks applauds the important work that was accomplished
last year by the study committee
that you chaired.
Senator Kirkpatrick, which included vice chair Hatchett, secretary Payne, and senator Mallow
on transition age youth in Georgia's foster care.
During the fourth meeting on 11/17/2025,
the committee heard testimony from two experts on autism, doctor Michelle Zena and doctor Nathan Kahl.
Each explained the significant needs of Georgia's foster care in terms of autism
identification and support.
Doctor Zena reported
the findings of Georgia's Department of Human Services, Division of Family Children Services, DFCS
autism pilot program, which notably found that autism is six times
more common
among Georgia's foster care youth.
She explained that 609
foster children
were in the original study population
and that fifty one point six percent of youth
who were screened for autism screen positive.
Of those seventeen point four percent were later diagnosed with autism.
Autism Speaks supports
senate bill four zero two because it is responsive
to the research
showing that children in Georgia's foster care program
need targeted resources to better
identify those at risk for an autism diagnosis
and move these children through the screening and evaluation process.
This will enable them to be eligible for the evidence based
interventions
that can make a significant
difference in their development.
Additionally, as was noted by doctor
Zena,
diagnosis
and treatment improve placement stability
for the children and increase the rate of reunification and adoption.
Autism Speaks offers resources and support
to the state of Georgia as it works toward addressing the needs of its foster care children who exhibit the behaviors of individuals with autism.
One such resource is our caregiver skills training program for families of children with the minimal delays of disabilities
at no cost to the public.
This evidence based program teaches parents and caregivers the day to day skills they need to help children
who exhibit their behaviors
often associated with autism to reach their full potential.
Caregivers are taught to use everyday play and home routines as opportunities to build their child's communication engagement,
positive behavior, and daily living skills.
Parents and caregivers
also learn essential problem solving skills and self care,
skills to build confidence, reduce stress, and improve their overall well-being,
all while learning how to better support their children. Information about this program
can be found on our website at www.autismspeaks.org.
In conclusion,
thank you for the opportunity to
speak today in support of senate bill four zero two
and for the commitment of this committee
to addressing the needs of Georgia's children
with autism in foster care.
Please feel free to contact Krista Stevens with any questions, and her contact information is included in the written testimony that will be provided. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your testimony.
Mister Dean.
Hey. Good afternoon.
My name is Kim Dean. I'm the founder and CEO of two organizations. One is Apollo Behavior Services.
We are the largest Georgia based provider of ABA therapy.
And, I'm also the founder and CEO of Autism Providers of Georgia, which is an organization representing,
autism providers in Georgia.
Thank you,
Chairman Tillery for this bill, and Chairman Kirkpatrick. We,
are big supporters of the bill,
for a number of different reasons. So children in foster care are among Georgia's most vulnerable populations.
They often experience high levels of trauma, instability,
and barriers
to consistent healthcare.
Research
consistently shows that early intervention,
for autism spectrum disorder has produces a much better outcome and also a very significant avoided cost.
For this population in particular, that's even more so true because not only,
is there the cost of their health care which is significantly higher if care is delayed, but on top of that, the direct costs to the state are very significant between hoteling
and case management and so forth.
And so AP, autism providers of Georgia is a big supporter of s B402
because we believe it could create,
much better access,
for this population,
and
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Questions from the committee?
Okay. Any further thank you very much. Thank you.
Question for senator Tillery?
Thank you, madam chair. And thank you, mister
chairman, for appropriations. I'm deeply grateful for this bill.
Just a question around the language that's in the bill
related to the, the expansion of the program. So if we look in sections,
it's it's five b.
It talks about subject to appropriations.
You have to have this five year program,
and then it says it shall be expanded. So
in the event
that we appropriate enough funds for the three regions,
but let's say next year, when we have a different appropriations
chairman,
we do not appropriate enough funds to expand it, what would happen?
Think you'll have a different one next year?
I'm a 100%.
I'm 99% sure that we will likely have a different appropriations chairman, but we might have also, you know, different president of the senate, so that might have some bearing too. But I just wanna make sure we're not boxing ourselves in. Like, if we can afford three per three regions, but we find ourselves not able to afford four, then we would be in violation of this law as I read it.
I think the the first three words on line 33
take take precedent.
Take precedent? Over the latter sections.
What's subject to appropriation?
So Right.
If we
don't have enough money to expand it to a fourth one Then Then we would stop in three. Then we would just stop at three, or we would stop completely? I think, honestly, if you didn't if we did not appropriate the money this year, you don't do one. So we have to appropriate the money to start. Right. But it the
the funding is subject
to appropriation. So if the money was not funded, then the pilot would stop or would not expand depending upon what funds
whatever funding was laid out in the budget.
Am I answering your Not quite. Okay. But I'm concerned that understanding your question. Right. So
because it says on line,
3039,
it shall be expanded to additional
service areas each subsequent year.
I'm concerned that
we might not appropriate enough money for that expansion
and, therefore,
would be in violation of the law and would have to close the entire
pilot even if we have the three divisions funded.
That's what I'm concerned about. That's not how I read it. But if you have language that you'd like to suggest to change that, that's fine. I I don't think that's the way that that read reads. Usually, when we put those first three words in front of
on 33,
b,
it makes it it'll make the rest of it subject to that. But if there's language that the committee feels more comfortable with, clearly, I'm not married to the language.
I'm married more to the goal. No. That's fine. If as long as you're you feel comfortable that it's does not shut the program down. And then the last question I have is just, is there any
how do we know if the program is working before '31? Like, before it's over, before that fifth year when they write the report,
how will we know if it's working?
What are these kind of stop gap measures there? What are the goals? I I would
I wanna defer to I know what my goals are, is that we're
identifying autism earlier and an ability to treat it earlier and hopefully
see that correlation,
the six to one correlation that we see now in foster care youth with autism versus the normal population, that we see that falling. But if there are any clinical things that would need to be spoken to, I'd defer to doctor Zena as to what clinical she's looking for. I can tell you what I'm looking for as someone
like you setting up the budget. I wanna see that correlation be less.
Right. So I think really maybe I'm not asking that question clearly.
I'm concerned that there's no
reporting. There's no,
real kind of accountability
written into this bill
for five years.
So, you know, we in this body are great at passing
laws and legislation.
They can go for five years and do this program very terribly, and we won't find out for five years. And so I'm just wondering if the author would be open to having some earlier reporting or or something so that we know that the pilot is actually piloting and and working. Right. Yeah. Clearly, don't have any problem with that. And I I would tell you, I believe that this LC this,
draft was made
somewhat in the knowledge of what's happened in the past. As we started this several years ago, we've been in conversations with doctor Zena. I know your subcommittee has been in or the special committee rather was as well.
She has been nothing except,
maybe even overcommunicative
if I had to say something, doctor Zena. I don't mean that in a in a bad way towards you at all, but making sure we
knew and stayed in touch. So,
could there be a blind spot in the drafting based upon how we saw things come? Yes, ma'am. We're certainly subject to that, and if you have something you'd like to suggest earlier that does not offend me at all.
Alright. Thank you.
Other questions from the committee?
One of the things I just wanna point out is that,
the foster kids are
in the jurisdiction of one department, but there is a lot of overlap.
Their medical care is through another department. Their,
any mental health issues,
CSB involvement or whatever, that's another department.
And so we constantly are working towards
improving communication
but and involving whoever we need to involve to solve the problem
even if the jurisdiction is clearly with defects.
There's a hopefully, bills that may come to your committee later on that I have drafted that I hope address that because you're right. You can't have three generals
in the middle of the field trying to to call or call the plays. It just doesn't work.
So, thank you for your committee's work to fix that.
Doctor Zena, did you have any closing remarks?
I'm happy to answer any questions, and,
we've
produced several white papers previously.
As soon as all of the data was available,
Producing
reports,
it's not really a problem.
In the first part of the pilot, we had more than monthly meetings,
with all concerned parties for updates on progress.
Well, having known doctor Zena for a number of years, I can
attest that she's like a dog with a bone, and so I think we won't have to worry about accountability as long as she's
involved with the program. Of course, none of us is guaranteed
tomorrow, much less five years from now, but,
I think we have had a good history
of communication
from the people that are working on the pilot now.
Okay. If there are other questions oh, senator Strickland.
It's for the author.
I don't wanna cause the issues with the bill.
But going off what my colleagues was asking on line 49,
we won't get a report to us until 07/01/2031.
Would it be more appropriate to have some sort of annual report given to us on the update what's happening with this? Otherwise, we won't know anything until then. That that is actually what I expected the senator from the 41st was discussing.
And I hope I've made clear that it that that's something that she felt comfortable amending. I think she's now heard from doctor Zena who said, look, I can turn out a report to you when you want the report. So if that's something that this committee feels that they wanna change, again, we're married to the goal, not to the language. But to be fair, the report will come from the division. So doctor Zena could submit that, but the division has to be the one to give us the report.
Is there any issue you see with that from your standpoint? If you wanna change that
I think we're saying the same thing. But if you wanna change that year, there's no problem with me.
So, senator Strickland, did you have a suggestion?
And I'm open to I'm doing this on the fly as we do, so any feedback. But I'm thinking annually, we could get some sort of report on the status of the pilot program
because it does the language
doesn't necessarily require
anything too formal. There's you see the language lines 49 through 55.
So I don't know what would prevent the division from giving us some sort of update annually as to what's going on with the pilot program, but I'm open to any one that says I'm
wrong.
Can you,
give us some words? Or I would strike no later than 07/01/2031,
the comma, and may put annually.
I guess we just say July 1 of each year, don't we? We pass that. Chairman Tillery.
Do you want me to do an amendment? I think we can do it. If I was going to amend this,
I would probably say no later than July 1. I would strike the '31, and I would replace it with a '27.
After the comma, I would then put an annually thereafter,
comma.
I think that accomplishes
Yeah. Why you couldn't get it right the first time, but I'm glad we're fixing it now.
We're gonna need
a due pass motion before we can amend anything.
Open.
Madam chair,
number nine.
Madam chair, I move we do pass
Senate bill four zero two LC number five two zero eight nine two.
It's not amended yet. No. No. You gotta I gotta move with Dupasse, and then we have to amend this.
K. Second by center press. I don't think I'm gonna should put it in.
Okay.
It is madam chair, I, I move I make a motion that I'm Right. I I make a motion that we amend
line 49
by striking
31
and replacing that with 27
and then adding
an annually
thereafter.
Comma.
Comma.
I don't know about the grandma bird, but ledge council. You're good?
Okay.
Waiting to make sure Absolutely.
Yes. Always got it. Okay. Proper numbering and scribblers there is this And is there a second? Second.
Okay.
All in favor, raise your hand.
Okay. No opposition.
That's fine. So now we're back to the
original bill,
and we have a motion on the floor do pass with the second.
So all in favor of the original bill as amended,
raise your
hand. For the purposes of committing as committee substitute,
do you need that?
It's it's not a committee substitute.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Okay. We have one more bill,
and it's, senate bill three eighty three, and that's my bill. So I'm gonna ask, chairman Hatchett
vice chairman Hatchett
to take the seat here,
and I'll come around there.
Thank you, madam chair. It's when you're ready.
Okay.
Thank you. And,
I have some,
some friends that I brought along from JBI,
and I would like to ask Ashley
to come up and join me.
Also, Sarah Louie and Philip Curtis,
and I forgot.
Yeah. Okay. My friends from GBI are here to help. This is an agency bill,
and it
let's see. The LC number.
I didn't bring the right folder with me. Okay. LC630021.
Is that what you got?
That's right.
Okay.
The purpose of this bill
is to update
the law around the Child Fatality Review Commission.
That law was originally put in place, I believe, in 1990,
and, not much has been done to it since that.
So,
what the bill does, and you have a handout,
one page that looks like that
in your folders,
and it sort of summarizes what the bill does.
It,
clarifies the distinct roles of the review committee
as and the medical examiners and coroners.
It updates the current technology
about
child, infant child deaths.
And then it also provides realistic timelines for compliance
so that we actually get the reports in a timely way, because what we have in the law now is not really
practical and doesn't really work. So,
I'm gonna ask Ashley to just walk through the
specifics
real quick.
Sure. Thank you guys for having us back again to talk about this.
It was introduced last year, but not just as an an idea for,
potential legislation.
The changes that the, state panel discussed this year was how we could streamline our process and have better reporting on child fatalities.
Some of the changes we made were to,
add a local hospital representative and school system representative to
the suggested members of the local committees,
to require attendance of an agency representative
at annual training for the CFR procedures so that we can make sure we are consistent throughout the state.
We with the updating
of terminology, one of the things we looked at was the prior
wording had sudden infant death syndrome, which is,
since become an outdated term for all that it encompasses. So we have changed that wording to sudden death when an infant is in apparent good health, including sudden infant death syndrome, sudden explained infant death, and sleep related.
Then with the timelines,
what we have found is that the timelines in,
the wording prior
were not feasible with
the complex
investigations that a lot of these cases go through.
So by trying to meet these timelines, we were missing certain deaths. Our annual report was not fully representative of what was actually happening
in those,
different counties because we may end up not having all of the data on certain complex cases, such as,
child abuse investigations that were extensive or some of the sudden unexplained infant deaths where all information that is available has to be reviewed, and that can take some time,
with additional testing medical record review.
So,
we have changed that. We've changed to represent the fact that some of this data can be easier
transmitted. There was a form referenced in here, which is outdated as we do things
primarily electronically
now with the the data,
and just updating that timeline.
So that is the majority of the changes that we made to
this wording in this book. Yeah. And just to be clear, the timeline for the preliminary
report is has changed from forty eight hours to seven days.
So
any questions?
Any questions for the committee?
There are no questions. See it. Oh, we got one. Number eight.
Yeah. Thank you. And thanks for bringing us, madam chair.
Just wanna make sure because we are expanding the length of time that the
coroner or the county medical examiner has to get this information,
how will this impact the families? Will they be delayed in receiving
maybe the body back of the infant? Will they be
are there any implications on just how the family is able to move forward in terms of grieving the loss of a child? No.
It shouldn't impact the families at all. And so it won't delay access to a death certificate or anything like that? No. That's actually one of the things we're trying to reflect is that
with this reporting or these reviews, a lot of times these were happening
before the death certificate had been completed or the autopsy report had been completed.
So when it came to looking at the cause and manner of death, those things hadn't been determined yet. So this has nothing to do with when the family receives a death certificate or receives
their child back after examination.
K. Thank you. No prob.
Thank you. Any other questions?
It doesn't look like we have anybody
signed up to speak either. So
I recognize
senator Payne.
Yes, mister chairman. I make a motion to pass on l c six three
zero zero two one.
Got a motion for senator Payne, second from senator Jackson. All those in favor?
Is there any discussion for senator? Okay. All those in favor, raise your hand.
Looks like it is unanimous.
What?
We have moved this bill. We need to fix this one here.
Wonder if we can do that real quick.
I know we made a week and, like, just to make sure. Yeah.
I'm stepping down his chair now.
Thank you. While I was concentrating on one bill, senator Strickland came up with something on the last bill that we need to
take a look at. So what's your mind, Tim? I was just looking
at the amendment that that, senator Jackson decided to do. And it looks like we also need to fix lines fifty eight and fifty nine because it contemplates the law being repealed upon the report being submitted July 1, but that was assuming that was the final report.
My question would be, do you need us to
reconsider the bill to make that amendment now, or is that something you can do?
Mister rules, chair? Madam chair, I'd make a motion that we rescind
the passing of There you go. S b four zero two.
Okay.
Discussion?
And can offer an amendment? This come up in rules. Okay.
I know what to
do. So on line 59,
we need to add the word final. Well, hold on. You gotta take a look. We need to vote.
You gotta resend it first.
Someone texted me. Second already. Same. So,
all in favor of resending Alright. The bill, raise your hand. Okay. Now
proceed. Now on line 59, so we add the word final between,
the and report. Would that be the way to fix that?
Who? Like that.
I need the bill to look at Oh. Full charge.
I'll come give her
Yeah.
Madam council. Yeah. I thought, no. We don't have to write the house under any
So, presumably,
what we're talking about is that the report will continue until all of the regions
have been included in the pilot.
Right. So the bill contemplated repealing the law after the reports done 07/01/2031,
which made sense. But since we added
other reporting,
the repeal part no longer makes sense how it's written. I think the final the addition of the word final Okay. Accomplishes that goal. Yes. So I'll move to add the word final between the and report on line 59.
Second that. Second? Okay. Any discussion?
All in favor, raise your hand.
Okay. Thank you.
And then And then a movement.
Motion you pass.
Second. As amended again. Has been had to isn't there? Second.
Okay. Second. Who's who's second? Okay. Yeah. Now that he's rescinded, do we need to amend it again where we amended it the first time?
We just did that, I think. We just amended it, and now we're moving too fast as amended. Now can we experience, right, to have action. I think what he's saying is
by rescinding the whole bill, we no longer have the first amendment.
So we need to put the first amendment back in place.
So I forget who made the motion. This is not You made that motion? Okay.
So you wanna make that motion again?
Madam chair, I move that we amend
Senate bill
four zero two on line 49,
replacing
31 with 27,
comma,
and annually thereafter,
comma.
Is there a second? Second.
Okay. Any further discussion?
Okay. All in favor, raise your hand.
Okay.
And then we need to vote on the entire bill as amended. Mhmm.
Have a motion. I already made the motion. Second.
Okay.
Any further discussion?
Madam chair, I just would like to point out that,
the gentleman from the fiftieth is is looking like a strong candidate for attorney general with these corrections in committee.
Right. Just off tonight.
It's true. Okay. Let's vote on the final bill as
amended.
All in favor, raise your hand.
Thank you very much for your patience, committee members. And,
I think we ended up in the right spot, and I appreciate the help from the rules chairman.
So with that, look forward to many more bills that are gonna help our foster kids, and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.