Child welfare bill advances March 12, 2026 Rep. Nick Wilson, R-Williamsburg, shares how House Bill 778 will address several child welfare issues in Kentucky during Thursday’s House Families and Children Committee meeting. A high-res version is available here. FRANKFORT — A bill seeking t o address several child welfare issues, including child substance ingestion deaths, advanced from the House Families and Children Committee on Thursday. Committee Vice-Chair Rep. Nick Wilson, R-Williamsburg, and Committee Chair Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, are the primary cosponsors of House Bill 778. The bill contains provisions on foster care placements, data collection, school safety and more. Wilson told the committee the first section of the bill would ensure a child in foster care cannot be placed with someone on the sex offender registry. According to the legislation, this would include any adult or child living in the home who is a registered sex offender or juvenile sex offender. This would include a relative caregiver or fictive kin placement as well. “It has happened, so we want to make that clear that that’s not acceptable,” Wilson said. “Sometimes I think it’s unknowingly, say a family member or new boyfriend or girlfriend or something like that, but we just thought we should address that situation.” The bill also calls for safe and adequate foster care placements designed to meet the child’s needs. The legislation would also create a pathway for former foster care youth to reenter the system for support. The new definition of eligible youth would include a person 18 to 20.5 years old. Heavrin, who serves on the state’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Panel, told the committee more Kentucky children have been dying from ingesting harmful substances. Half of HB 778 focuses on this issue. “If you look at the annual report that was put out recently, you will see that there, and it’s something that we really have to address,” she said. Under HB 778, child injuries caused by ingestion or inhalation of a controlled substance would be included in the definition of neglect. Neglect would also be added to the child abuse statute. Third-degree criminal abuse would include neglect under HB 778, and be a class A misdemeanor unless the child is under the age of 13. If a child under the age of 13 has suffered serious physical injury due to the ingestion or inhalation of a controlled substance, then the individual would face class D felony charges. “I think we’ve done a really good job of threading the needle on criminalizing behavior that leads to these cases without criminalizing pure accidents,” Wilson said. Rep. Emily Callaway, R-Louisville, also serves on the House Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee. She said there is an ongoing effort to address the packaging issue on certain substances that also look like candy. “I did want to add that little bit of encouragement there, that we’re not just putting it solely on the parents and the people in the house,” Callaway said. “There’s going to be some more accountability as we’re delving into this kind of dangerous realm of these attractive cookies, gummies and all that goes with that.” Wilson said children taking medication that looks like candy is a huge aspect of the recent increase of child ingestion-related fatalities in the commonwealth. Another major aspect of HB 778 would allow public school superintendents, principals and school resource officers to be notified of certain details of a child’s diversion agreement within the juvenile justice system or if the child is under a domestic violence order or interpersonal protective order. Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, asked Wilson for clarification on the intent of those provisions. “I just want to more clearly understand the intent of that and make sure that we are supporting the child in whatever diversion activities they need to participate in versus further stigmatizing the child,” she said. Wilson said the intention of the legislation is to balance a safe environment for all children with privacy. “We’ve had officers just basically come out and say, ‘This kid was charged with arson and nobody even knew,’ and we’re talking about some serious crimes,” Wilson said. “Sometimes it could be weapon-related, which is very important to know if you’re an officer in a school setting.” Heavrin said she believes it’s important for the school to know about the child’s involvement in the juvenile justice system or in a domestic violence situation. “I think it’s really important that people in the building know what’s going on to maybe say, ‘Hey, we need to keep an extra eye on him or her,’ in a way that’s best for the kid and maybe to give them extra, extra love,” she added. HB 778 received unanimous approval from the House Families and Children Committee. It is now before the full House for consideration. “With traditional treatment, no one skips acute withdrawal, chronic withdrawal or craving. That’s a year and a half of misery and incapacitation. And that is why the failure rate is so high with traditional therapy because it is so long and so miserable,” she said. Loftus said ibogaine is not a recreational drug and is much safer than traditional treatment. Jessica Blackburn-Allen, a licensed social worker from Floyd County, testified she became addicted to opioids in high school. She subsequently went to Mexico to receive ibogaine treatment, and she described what she experienced during the process. “In that moment, I understood deeply for the first time the devastating impact my choices were having on my family. I understood the value of my life. It became clear to me that I had a responsibility to be better for myself and those who loved me, and I knew that I had a choice,” she said. “The next day, I had no cravings, no withdrawal, no desire to smoke a cigarette and no thoughts of wanting my life to end.” Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, asked if smoking was on the list that ibogaine could treat, and Loftus said this is the case. Sen. Keturah J. Herron, D-Louisville, asked about future plans to fund the research. Douglas said appropriations will continue to be discussed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, said he has further questions about ibogaine, but researching it could be beneficial. He said he has spoken to people planning to undergo the treatment and that ibogaine could provide answers to these issues. “We don’t need to let that pass by without taking some action,” he said. Carroll asked who would serve as the drug developer in the partnership, and Loftus said that, in a similar program in Texas, several developers are competing for the role. Douglas said ibogaine could be effective and helpful for many Kentuckians who battle substance use disorder. “Here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, we are putting billions of dollars in treating substance use disorder,” he said. “It is not the way to do business – to prop up businesses by locking people into a dependency or addiction.” The post Child welfare bill advances appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less