Good Government
When the state removes a child from his or her parents, the child protective services agency, at least in Indiana, must attempt to place the child in a safe, family-like environment, preferably with relatives. Most families would prefer to have the child with grandma, or and uncle or aunt, than some strangers. The trouble for the state is to assure that the child is not going from the frying pan into the fire.
So, someone in the legislature, upset with a case where a bad placement was made, pushed forward a provision mandating FBI criminal checks on all adults in a residence before the state placed a child there. The fact that these background check would cost $39.00 each, and take 2 to 3 months to complete (during which time the child would be with strangers in the foster care system), did not put the rest of the legislature off, and the bill became law, set to go into effect this Thursday.
Many across the state had a negative reaction to this law, seeing the delays and costs of the added procedure to be unwarranted. The big problem come up when the FBI responded that it could not open its records for non-law enforcement purposes, and therefore could not provide the background checks. Apparently, no one in the legislature bothered to check and see if the new requirement complied with federal law. Oops.
