House Passes Bill Relating to Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs

The Ohio House of Representatives today passed legislation to assist counties in carrying out their child abuse and child neglect prevention programs through certain administrative changes.

House Bill 142 includes minor revisions to laws governing the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund (OCTF), which is used to invest in abuse and neglect prevention programs by partnering with an advisory board in every county. The changes will provide both the OCTF board and each county’s advisory board more flexibility in allocating funds so that multiple advisory boards can collaborate and the prevention programming can be planned in a timelier manner.

“The programs put on through each county’s advisory board play a vital role in protecting our children,” Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder said. “If they can perform their roles in a way that makes better sense, it’s important that we adopt the legislative changes for them to do that.”

The changes in House Bill 142 include:

• Providing the OCTF board with the discretion to allow multiple counties to collaborate and submit one application.
• Allowing the counties to submit an application for multiple years, rather than on an annual basis.
• Enabling OCTF to send funds directly to the administrative agent of a county Family and Children First Council that has been designated as that county’s child abuse and neglect prevention advisory board.
• Moving the due date of an application up from April 1st to March 1st of the fiscal year so that the advisory boards will receive their funding at roughly the same time as they are to initiate their child abuse and neglect prevention programming.

House Bill 142 will now move to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.