“Where are the parents?” That’s the question Kentuckians ask, over and over, when a kid ends up in real trouble. It’s a fair question. For too long, our system treated a struggling child as if the problem started and ended with the kid, while the parents stood off to the side, uninvolved and unaccountable. That’s not fair to the child, and it’s not fair to the community that has to deal with the consequences.
I sponsored the part of SB 170 that changes this. When a family comes into contact with the system over something like truancy, it’s no longer just about fixing the kid. The law now requires an evidence-based screening of the whole family to identify what’s actually driving the trouble, and it requires the parents themselves to participate in a family diversion plan, not just sign a form and walk away. Parents don’t get to dump their child’s struggles onto the school, the court, or the state and call it handled. At the same time, this isn’t about punishing families and calling it a day. It’s tough love: real expectations, real accountability, and real help to get the whole family back on track, because a fixed kid with a broken home behind him doesn’t stay fixed for long.
But that is just half of SB 170. The other half was crafted by Sen. Brandon Storm, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman. His portion of the bill creates a new pilot program, SOAR (Supporting Opportunities for Accountability and Restoration), in at least 10 public school districts, connecting families with a RISE team (Responsive Interventions to Support and Empower) that puts this whole approach into practice. And for status offenders generally, kids whose only “offense” is something like truancy or running away, not an actual crime, the bill raises the minimum age for secure detention to 14, so young children aren’t being locked up in a facility built for juvenile crime over a school attendance problem.
SB 170, which is now law, was companion legislation to HB 592, which I sponsored with Rep. Jim Gooch. Sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Brandon Storm, with Sens. Danny Carroll and Matt Nunn. Passed the Senate 37-0 and the House 89-3.
Parents raise the kids. The state can help, but it cannot replace them. This bill says so, and then backs it up.