AB107 — Background-Check Removal for Foster-Home Residents

There is no acceptable framing for AB107. The bill removes the requirement that the State of Nevada check whether a person living in or working at a foster home has a prior controlled-substance conviction. The bill is short. The bill is plain. The bill is on the NV Legislature website with Tracy Brown-May listed as the primary sponsor, and the language speaks for itself: a person convicted of a violation involving a controlled substance may now operate, be employed by, reside in, or be present in a foster home.

Foster children are in the care of the state because their birth families could not keep them safe. The minimum that the state owes those children is that the next house we put them in is safer than the one we took them out of. AB107 says, in effect, that an adult addiction history is not a relevant data point in deciding whether to place a vulnerable child in a particular home. I have spent twenty years in the recovery and metabolic-health space. I know what active addiction looks like in a household. So does every law enforcement officer and every social worker in this district.

When I am in Carson City, I will file the repeal on day one and I will fight for it on the floor.