HB 2849A Child custody protection without court order

VOTE:YES – Governor Signed into Law

Status (overview) of bill:https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Measures/Overview/HB2849

This bill enhances standards under which a child may be taken into protective custody without a court order. Specifies that a child may be taken into protective custody by a peace officer, counselor, or employee of Department of Human Services only when there is reasonable cause.

Personal Choice and Responsibility
More than 80% of children that were removed from families were never provided with a judicial order, and in some counties 100% of the families were NEVER given a judicial order. These families had to go through hell to get their child back.

Limited Government
Current Oregon law allows a child to be taken into protective custody without a court order when the conditions or surroundings appear to jeopardize the child’s welfare. This standard, however, is at odds with case law applying the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution. In response to this dichotomy, HB 4009 (2018) proposed a stricter standard. While provisions of the measure relating to taking a child into custody were not enacted, a work group was formed that proposed HB 2849 and new standards for when a child may be taken into protective custody without a court order. Specifies that a child may be taken into protective custody by a peace officer, counselor, or employee of Department of Human Services only when there is reasonable cause to believe that there is an imminent threat of severe harm to the child, the child poses an imminent threat of severe harm to self or others, the child has run away from home, or there is an imminent threat that the child’s parents or guardian will cause the child to be beyond the reach of the juvenile court before an assessment of abuse allegations could be completed. The measure allows caseworkers to submit written declarations or oral statements under oath when seeking a protective custody order and sets the standards that must be met for the order to be granted.