Children in Need of a Leader

by: Dean Barker

Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 07:33:09 AM EDT

House Majority Leader to Request Rules Change to Allow for Introduction of Caylee's Law Bill

   Concord-House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) announced today that he intends to ask the House Rules Committee to permit the late drafting of legislation that would make it a felony for any parent who failed to report a child missing within a certain time of their disappearance.  According to Rep. Bettencourt, he would like to work with the appropriate policy committee to set the window for reporting a missing child to a time specific, but said it would likely be  somewhere  between 48 to 72 hours .  The legislation, called "Caylee's Law," comes in response to the recent death of the Florida toddler, Caylee Anthony, whose disappearance went unreported by her mother for nearly a month.

   "It is  unconscionable to think that any parent or guardian of a child would let their child's disappearance go unreported for any length of time," said Bettencourt.  "The Caylee Anthony case has clearly brought to the national consciousness the need to close the  hole in any laws that don't adequately protect our children.  We need to take steps right now to ensure that the search for any missing child can begin as quickly as possible and that any parent or guardian who fails to file a report suffer the consequence.

Here's something the TeeVee never "brought to the national consciousness" - what Bettencourt's budget did to "protect our children":

"There are dramatic changes as a result of the budget," [Edwin W. Kelly, administrative judge] said. "The Legislature has completely repealed the definition of a child in need of services [CHINS] from what we've known it to be over the years."

   It had been defined as children who are regularly truant from school, habitually run away from home or commit offenses that would be criminal if committed by an adult.

   ...Under this new definition, the number of children who qualify for CHINS will go from between 3,000 and 5,000 in one year to about 50.

He said it's likely there will be cases that would have been brought before the court that will find services available in communities, but others will not move forward and those children will continue to be truant or commit crimes.

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