Senate Bill 151 passes unanimously

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Kentucky Legislature passed Senate Bill 151 unanimously today, giving social workers and families fostering children a reason to rejoice.

Under current Kentucky Law those who are relatives or family friends of children they are fostering but were not already registered foster parents were unable to receive the same benefits as those who were registered. Now though these fictive kin of the foster child will be able to receive the same free healthcare and state stipends that should allow them to foster the children without facing an insurmountable financial burden.

Lynn Halsey, assistant director of the Family Enrichment Center in Bowling Green, hopes that allowing children to be placed with relatives and family friends will help reduce trauma.

“I was really excited to know that it passed today unanimously, both sides of the aisle. When that’s not always the case, but the important part of this is that a child gets to stay with somebody they know. The other part of this bill was that a child can actually offer up some names of people that if they can’t be with their family, people they would want to be with, and that’s giving them a voice.”

As Halsey said the bill enables a list of known persons that the child is able to give to state officials and further is given a choice of who they might want to be placed with. Along with the other change the people receiving the child would not be able to receive state benefits as soon as they are accepted as registered foster parents by the state.