Testimony: Statutory Neglect Amendment Act of 2025

Children’s Law Center Appellate Deputy Director Katherine Piggott-Tooke testified before the Committee on Youth Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety regarding B26-400 – Statutory Neglect Amendment Act of 2025.

Children’s Law Center strongly supports the proposed legislation because it focuses the statute on the condition of the child, rather than the qualities of the parent – thereby better protecting children, both from unsafe conditions in the home and from unnecessary and harmful intervention. The legislative amendments to the statute also better distinguish when conditions that arise from deprivation can be remedied by targeted provision of resources – and therefore are conditions that stem solely from poverty– from conditions that are true neglect, and holds the government accountable for providing and connecting families to the services and supports that prevent the need for a neglect case, while also ensuring the government can intervene when necessary to protect children.