The North Carolina General Assembly made some changes to child welfare laws during this short session. Many of these changes have taken effect and some will be effective by January 1, 2025. All the amendments are important for those of you who practice in this area to be aware of.
S.L. 2024-33: An Act to Make Various Changes and Technical Corrections to the Laws Governing the Administration of Justice
Grandparents’ Role When Parents Deceased
Section 25 addresses the role of grandparents in an abuse, neglect, dependency, and termination of parental rights (TPR) action when the child’s parents are deceased. Effective for all petitions filed or pending on or after July 8, 2024, under the new G.S. 7B-401.1(e1), a grandparent may intervene in an abuse, neglect, or dependency action when one of the following circumstances exists: 1) both of the child’s parents are deceased; or 2) one of the child’s parents is deceased and the other parent is unknown or their rights have been terminated. See G.S. 7B-401.1(h) as amended. Also effective for TPR petitions or motions filed on or after July 8, 2024, under the new G.S. 7B-1103(a)(8), a grandparent has standing to initiate a TPR when all of the child’s known parents are deceased and the grandparent is seeking to the terminate the rights of an unknown parent.
Safe Babies Court
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) adopted one of the recommendations of the Chief Justice’s ACES-Informed Courts Task Force – create a Safe Babies Court (SBC). Currently, there are five pilot counties that will implement SBC: Brunswick, Durham, New Hanover, Mitchell and Yancey. See the North Carolina Safe Babies Court Fact Sheet for more information. Section 13 of S.L. 2024-33 creates a new Article 5B in G.S. Chapter 7B (“Safe Babies Court”) that consists of G.S. 7B-535 and 7B-536. SBC is defined at G.S. 7B-536(a)(7) as:
[t]he innovative court program implementing a community engagement and systems change initiative focused on improving how the courts, department of social services, and related child‑serving organizations work together to improve and expedite services for young families with at least one child who is no more than 3 years of age involved in juvenile actions alleging abuse, neglect, or dependency.The purpose of SBC is “to improve the long‑term well‑being of parents, children, and families involved with the department of social services and the juvenile court by providing them with trauma‑informed support and services and to achieve timely permanence, reduce generational trauma, and eliminate maltreatment.” G.S. 7B-535(a). A party’s participation in SBC is voluntary. See G.S. 7B-535(c).
SBC involves the work of state and local community coordinators, who are AOC employees. See G.S. 7B-536(a)(2). Information shared with the coordinators is privileged except for a communication made in furtherance of a crime or fraud or when the coordinator is obligated to make a mandatory report. G.S. 7B-536(d). Coordinators are not competent to testify in the abuse, neglect, or dependency action. Id.
Information sharing and the confidentiality of records are addressed in G.S. 7B-536. The AOC Director is the custodian of SBC records, which are records made or received by SBC coordinators that are not filed in the juvenile court record for the abuse, neglect, and dependency action. G.S. 7B-536(b). SBC records are not public records and may only be disclosed in two circumstances. First, the AOC Director may, in his discretion and without a court order, authorize the disclosure of de-identified records. G.S. 7B-536(c); see G.S. 7B-536(a)(3) (defining “de-identified record”). Second, the court in the abuse, neglect, or dependency case may order disclosure for good cause to a party after a party files a motion in the action, if Rule 5 notice has been provided to the parties and AOC Director, and a hearing is held. G.S. 7B-536(c). Before ordering disclosure, the court must conduct an in camera review of the SBC records. Id. The child’s guardian ad litem may share information at SBC meetings when they believe disclosure is in the juvenile’s best interests. G.S. 7B-536(e).
S.L. 2024-34: An Act Making Modifications to Laws Pertaining to Health and Human Services
Extension of payments to unlicensed relative caretakers
In the long session, the General Assembly required the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to develop and implement a policy that allows relatives who are caring for children in the custody of a department of social services (DSS) and who are unlicensed as foster parents to receive monthly financial payments at half the rate of a licensed foster care provider. This financial assistance has been extended to individuals who are providing full-time foster care to a child in DSS custody that the caretaker is related to and “if applicable, any half siblings, regardless of their [the half-sibling’s] relationship to the kinship caregiver.” Part IV, Section 4. This allows siblings to be placed together and for the caretaker to receive financial assistance for all the children to whom they are providing full-time care. See G.S. 7B-505(a1); 7B-903.1(c1) (prioritizing siblings being placed together). These amendments became effective on July 8, 2024. For more information about relative placement, licensing, and financial assistance, see this blog post written by my colleague, Timothy Heinle.
Infant Safe Surrender
Part V, section 5 makes two amendments to the new infant safe surrender laws enacted in the long legislative session. The first amendment clarifies that an infant may be safely surrendered by a parent to a first responder “who is on duty.” G.S. 7B-521(2). This makes it clear that a law enforcement officer, certified emergency medical services worker, or firefighter must be on duty for the infant to be deemed safely surrendered. Bringing an infant to the home of a first responder who is not on duty is not an option. With this amendment, all the professionals to whom an infant may be safely surrendered must be on duty (or at a health care facility if they are a health care provider or DSS office if they are DSS worker).
The second amendment to the safe surrender laws allows DSS to seek an ex parte court order finding the infant has been safely surrendered and confirming DSS has legal custody of the infant for the purposes of obtaining the child’s birth certificate, social security number, or State or federal benefits once the required publication of the infant’s safe surrender is initiated rather than completed. G.S. 7B-525(a); see G.S. 7B-526 (required notice by publication). These two amendments apply to all infants who are safely surrendered on or after October 1, 2024.
S.L. 2024-26: Addressing Human Trafficking Awareness Training
This session law makes several amendments to laws and enacts new laws related to human trafficking, including requiring human trafficking awareness trainings to specified categories of persons; victim confidentiality in criminal actions; the disclosure of certain criminal convictions related to sexually violent offenses, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation of a minor in Chapter 50 civil custody proceedings; the prohibition of viewing pornography on government networks and devices; and other changes. For purposes of this post, only the changes that impact child welfare are discussed.
A minor victim of human trafficking is an abused and neglected juvenile. See G.S. 7B-101(1)(i) and (15)(i). Because of that, training addressing human trafficking should include a section on minor victims of human trafficking, including sex and labor trafficking.
Human Trafficking Awareness Training
Effective June 28, 2024, Section 8 requires the NC DHHS Division of Social Services to expand, implement, and develop new trainings to provide guidance on human trafficking for all county social services staff including attorneys and directors. The training is to be developed in consultation with the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission. Delivery of the training may be made in the State’s Learning Management System, webinars, and regularly scheduled training calls; the biannual conferences for the Social Services Attorneys; and the DSS Directors’ biannual regional meetings or ongoing monthly meetings.
Sections 1 through 3 enact G.S. 130A-511 and 42A-139. These two new laws require the NC Department of Labor (DOL) to provide training on human trafficking awareness to all employees of lodging establishments (e.g., housekeeping, food and beverage servers, and check- in/-out workers); property managers and their employees who provide housekeeping or check-in/-out services for vacation rentals; and third-party contractors who are providing services to the lodging establishment or vacation rental. The training is to be developed by the DOL in consultation with the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission, DHHS, and the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association. The training must be provided at no cost and can be provided electronically or in-person; it is not available to the public. The training must begin for lodging employees who start on or after July 1, 2025 or for employees of vacation rentals initially listed on or after July 1, 2025, be completed within 60 days, and occur every 2 years. For employees of lodging establishments who started before July 1, 2025 or for vacation rentals listed prior to July 1, 2025, the training must be completed before June 30, 2027 and occur every 2 years.
Reporting Suspected Human Trafficking
Effective June 28, 2024, the new G.S. 130A-511 and 42A-130 require lodging establishments and property managers of vacation rentals to implement procedures for reporting suspected human trafficking to local law enforcement and the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The law does not address reporting suspected minor victims of human trafficking to a county DSS, but the universal mandated reporting law for abuse, neglect, and dependency requires such a report. See G.S. 7B-301. Lodging establishments or vacation rentals may need to include a provision in their procedures that address minor victims of human trafficking and an additional report to the county DSS. Law enforcement officers are included in the universal mandated reporting law, so any law enforcement officer who receives a report of suspected human trafficking of a minor victim and has cause to suspect the minor is a victim of human trafficking is obligated to report to the county DSS.
Viewing Pornography Prohibited from Government Devices
Section 6 enacts G.S. 143-805, which requires public agencies and the judicial and legislative branches to prohibit the viewing of pornography on any government device by their employees, elected officials, appointees, and students by January 1, 2025. See G.S. 143-805(g)(4) (defining “pornography”) and (g)(5) (defining “public agency”). A government device includes a cell phone, laptop, computer, or other device that is capable of connecting to a network and is owned, leased, maintained, or controlled by the public agency. See G.S. 143-805(b)(1) (definition of “device”). The prohibition also includes viewing pornography over the network of a public agency or the judicial or legislative branch. See G.S. 143-805(b)(3) (definition of “network”).
It is possible that some abuse, neglect, or dependency cases include evidence that may constitute pornography under the broad definition in the new law. Although there is not an exception that explicitly addresses county DSS cases of child abuse, neglect, or dependency, G.S. 143-805(d) carves out some exceptions that may apply. Those exceptions include “investigating or prosecuting crimes, … or performing actions related to other law enforcement purposes,” as sometimes a county DSS may coordinate with law enforcement when investigating abuse. See G.S. 7B-307(a). Another exception is “participating in judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings.” When a petition alleging abuse, neglect, or dependency, the termination of parental rights, or requesting a review of placement on the Responsible Individuals List is filed, a judicial proceeding is initiated. These cases are covered by this exception. A third exception is “[p]rotecting human life.” Depending on the facts of an abuse, neglect, or dependency action, this exception may apply, albeit rarely.
By January 1, 2025, the State Chief Information Officer must publish recommendations for what is appropriate under the exceptions. Also by January 1, 2025, each public agency and the legislative and judicial branches must have policies addressing this prohibition on their networks and devices, and the policies must include disciplinary actions for any violations. Agencies and the judicial branch should consider how to address juvenile abuse, neglect, and dependency cases where “pornography” (as defined by the new law) may be evidence in the case.