State of Montana Newsroom
Legislative Panel Continues CPS, Long-Term Care Work
The Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee will hear about aging services in Montana and about programs other states use to assist parents involved in the child protective services system when it meets March 19-20 in Helena.
The activities are part of the panel's continued work on two studies approved by the Legislature last year.
The committee will focus on the senior and long-term care study on Thursday, March 19. Members will hear from Montana groups that work on aging-related matters. They'll also hear from the Department of Public Health and Human Services about the services it offers to protect older or disabled adults.
Members will then review the ideas they've heard for the study and decide which options to explore in more depth during the rest of the interim.
On Friday, March 20, the committee will take up its child protective services study. Members will hear presentations on:
- Montana's plans for putting the federal Family First Prevention Services Act into effect;
- a program Washington state uses to provide parents with legal representation; and
- a parent peer support program used in Iowa.
The meeting will begin at 12:30 p.m. on March 19 in Room 137 of the Capitol in Helena. It will continue at 8 a.m. on March 20.
The meeting will be streamed live at http://leg.mt.gov and will be broadcast on the Montana Public Affairs Network (MPAN). For more information about the meeting, including an agenda and related materials, visit the committee's website, www.leg.mt.gov/cfhhs, or contact committee researcher Sue O'Connell at soconnell@mt.gov or 406-444-3597.