Billiot Bill Defeated
    The state legislature’s conference committee recently rejected House Bill 1416, which would have protected Louisiana families from facing a traumatic social services child abuse investigation based on an anonymous tip. H.B. 1416 was nicknamed the Billiot Bill after the case of HSLDA members Mr. and Mrs. Russell Billiot of Houma. Following an anonymous tip that the Billiot children were playing unsupervised in the street in front of their house, a social worker demanded—and the court ultimately ordered—that each child in the family be interviewed separately from the parents. This order was made despite the fact that two mandatory child abuse reporters wrote affidavits indicating there was no abuse or neglect taking place in the Billiot’s home.
    H.B. 1416 would have required probable cause to issue an order for an interview. Under current law, in order to obtain a court order for an interview, a social worker is merely required to submit an affidavit to a judge stating that the social worker has reasonable suspicion of abuse or neglect and that the parents refused to allow an interview.
    In the initial house committee hearing on H.B. 1416, the probable cause language was stricken. Passing without further amendment through the house and then the senate committee hearing process, the bill was defeated on the senate floor. However, because of the yeoman work by Representative Anthony Perkins (R-64), the bill did reach conference committee to resolve disagreements in language between the disparate bills introduced in the House and Senate. The conference committee killed the bill.
    HSLDA is encouraged that this legislation almost passed and in the process picked up support of some within the Louisiana Department of Social Services. This was in no small part due to your telephone calls to your representatives and the hard work of other key individuals—Representative Tony Perkins, Christian Home Educators Fellowship of Louisiana board member Shep Hunter, and the Billiots. (Mrs. Billiot testified before all the legislative committee hearings.)
    None of the other bills that HSLDA tracked and that were adverse to parental and home school freedoms passed, not even an attempt to increase the compulsory attendance age from 17 to 18.
    HSLDA thanks our members for all of their help on this important issue. We’ll need your support again when this bill is introduced in the next general legislative session.