Idaho has moved most of the way through a 19-point repair job for the state's oversight of children living in residential care. A follow-up review presented to lawmakers Friday found 13 recommendations complete and two underway, but four protections involving abuse investigations, staff screening, treatment oversight and public reporting still require action.
Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d'Alene, co-chair of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, said the unfinished items should be a focus when the Legislature returns in January. That puts a concrete family-safety agenda in front of lawmakers after a year of measurable progress.
House Bill 723 changed the inspection rules
The Office of Performance Evaluations opened its original review in June 2025 after finding weak incident handling, uneven facility monitoring and placements that exposed children to avoidable risk. Idaho's response came through agency changes and House Bill 723, which took effect July 1.
The measure cleared the House 68-0 and the Senate 35-0 before it was signed into law. It requires residential facilities to post, distribute and explain a bill of rights to children and their parents or guardians. Those rights cover personal safety, medical care, family contact, education, privacy, access to an advocate and the ability to report mistreatment outside a facility without retaliation.
State licensing staff must now conduct at least one unannounced survey of each facility every year. The state also controls who is interviewed during a survey by reviewing critical incidents, restraint and seclusion reports and child protective services records. Facilities no longer get to choose which children and workers speak with inspectors.
Restraint and seclusion events must now be filed as critical incidents. Those reports join fires, hospitalizations, law enforcement calls, suicide attempts, missing children, deaths and abuse or neglect investigations already reviewed by licensing staff.
Four protections remain unfinished
The first two gaps fit together. Idaho still lacks one state entity with clear responsibility for investigating and substantiating abuse allegations inside children's residential facilities. Licensing, law enforcement and facilities can each investigate within their own authority, but none owns the entire question.
That leaves a related problem with Idaho's Child Protection Central Registry. The state review found no formal path for putting a facility worker with a substantiated history of abuse or neglect on the registry when that person falls outside the law's current parent, guardian or custodian definitions. Evaluators outlined two possible fixes: expand who may be listed or create a separate legal category for institutional abuse.
The third gap concerns treatment. Licensing can check whether a facility follows a child's service plan and required safety measures, but it does not judge whether the treatment itself is taking place or matches the child's needs. The report said any broader role would need legislative authority and would have to account for different treatment models.
The fourth gap is transparency. Facilities now send restraint and seclusion data to state licensing officials, but Idaho law does not require aggregate trend reports to lawmakers or the public. Without that view, the state cannot easily show whether use of those high-risk interventions is rising, falling or shifting among facilities.
These are not abstract paperwork disputes. Residential care replaces a child's home around the clock, often during a difficult period for the child and family. Clear investigative authority and visible records give parents, caseworkers and taxpayers a way to tell whether safeguards work after the statute is signed.
Agency changes reached daily casework
The follow-up review also documented practical changes inside the Department of Health and Welfare. The department created seven facility case manager positions, giving foster children in residential care a second state worker focused on facility visits, incident response and coordination.
A new priority system calls for immediate investigation of the most serious allegations, with an on-site response within two business days unless law enforcement directs otherwise. Medium-priority cases call for an on-site response or records review within five business days. Lower-priority matters may be handled at the next survey or within 90 days. The department reported meeting those timelines, although evaluators said they did not independently audit that claim.
As of May 20, the state counted 190 foster children in residential care, and about 89 percent were in the type of placement officials considered appropriate. The remaining children included some waiting for a suitable home, nearing discharge or lacking a permanency plan.
Two recommendations are still in progress rather than stalled. One is an online licensing dashboard. The other is public release of the risk matrix used to guide inspections. Idaho has also amended six of 13 out-of-state placement contracts to require reports when a facility's licensing status changes, with the remaining contract updates still pending.
January has a four-item checklist
The state review gives legislators a narrow list: assign responsibility for abuse investigations, close the registry gap, decide who should oversee treatment and require useful trend reporting on restraint and seclusion.
Redman's call to make those items a January focus follows a bill that already won unanimous votes in both chambers. The next phase is less sweeping than House Bill 723, but it is easier to measure. Families should be able to know who investigates an allegation, whether a dangerous worker can move to another facility, and whether high-risk interventions are becoming more common.
Idaho now has four specific safeguards left to put into law, not another vague promise to improve oversight.