| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 3/11/2005 10:50:26 AM Home School Legal Defense Association Wyoming Improves Child Protection Law |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== March 11, 2005 Wyoming Improves Child Protection Law Dear HSLDA members and friends: Governor Freudenthal has just signed Senate File 39, the "Child Protection Amendments" bill, which makes a number of significant changes to Wyoming law. Thanks to the hard work of many homeschoolers and courageous action by family-friendly legislators, this bill dramatically improves the law for Wyoming families. SF 39 comes on top of House Bill 76, which the Governor signed on February 17. Here are the favorable changes from these two bills that all go into effect on July 15, 2005: * Child protective services (CPS) workers must inform parents of the allegations against them at the earliest opportunity during their initial contact with them. * CPS workers must be trained about the constitutional and statutory rights of families. (Many CPS workers currently have no training about parents' rights.) * CPS workers must learn the legal definitions of abuse and neglect. (Many CPS workers ignore the laws defining abuse and substitute their own opinion.) * CPS workers will be able to "assess" lower-risk cases instead of completing a full-blown "investigation." This means better protection for the children who are really at risk and less harassment of homeschool families who are reported for trivial or frivolous causes. * Doctors and other authorized persons are no longer immune from suit for taking temporary protective custody of a child. Doctors who take a child into custody on their own initiative now may be liable for making a bad medical judgment. * The standard for substantiating child abuse or neglect has been raised from merely "credible evidence" to a "preponderance of the evidence." * People who "knowingly and intentionally" make a false report of child abuse are guilty of a crime. This is a long list of positive developments. Two of them (training in parents' rights, and notification of the allegations against parents) implement changes that HSLDA and homeschoolers across the country worked hard to establish in federal law. This is good, but several key members of the Wyoming House of Representatives want to do better. Our friends in the House would like to do even more to reform this system. We are committed to working with them to accomplish this goal. HSLDA wants to protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and uphold the Constitution. We want a justice system that routinely puts abusers in jail, not a system that routinely puts children into foster care. That's why HSLDA worked so hard for these amendments. For more information on HSLDA's efforts to reform child protective services, see http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=2180 . With your help, Wyoming could lead the country in reforming the child protective services system. Thank you for all you have done this year-we look forward to 2006. Sincerely, Scott Somerville HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Remember the last time you wrote a term paper? Research can be grueling-digging through archives, wading through articles, conducting interviews. But if it's related to homeschooling, you can relax a little. There's a good chance that you'll find what you're looking for in HSLDA's bimonthly Home School Court Report. Providing in-depth, insightful articles on much of what affects the world of homeschoolers, the Court Report is a must-read for the serious homeschooler. This publication is provided free to each HSLDA member. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
