- Committee -

SCS/SB 684 - This act allows a court to order a juvenile offender into the custody of the Division of Youth Services, if there is an appropriate facility and upon agreement of the Division. The Division must petition a court for a hearing prior to release at any time before the offender reaches the age of twenty-one.

The court may set forth the minimum period for a child to remain in the custody of the Division of Youth Services (current law names the Department of Social Services). No court order shall require this time to exceed the child's eighteenth birth date, except upon petition of the Division. The Division shall determine the appropriate program or placement for children in its custody. Provisions requiring the Department of Social Services to submit proposed treatment plans developed by evaluation teams, and implementation of permanency treatment plans as ordered by a court, have been deleted.

JOAN GUMMELS