Bill > A196

Introduced Session

This bill requires a children's psychiatric facility to provide daily care to and supervision of the children receiving treatment at the facility, and the agency administrator or home, program, or facility director is to designate trained staff members to provide active, 24 hour, seven day a week visual supervision of each child at the facility including, but not limited to, video monitoring with equipment capable of streaming live video wirelessly to a remote location. Video monitoring of the child would only be allowed if one or more of the designated staff members can continuously and actively watch the children via monitor. The bill amends R.S.9:6-2 to expand the definition of "the person having the care, custody and control of any child" to include the agency administrator or home, program, or facility director of a children's psychiatric facility. The bill stipulates that at no time would a child receiving treatment at the facility be left unsupervised by designated staff members, except when that child is using the bathroom, shower, or changing facilities, or be left alone with one or more children without active, visual supervision by designated staff members. As used in the bill, "children's psychiatric facility" means a hospital contracted with a children's crisis intervention services unit or a private health care facility to provide acute child psychiatric or short-term psychiatric care.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Dawn Fantasia (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Children, Families and Food Security Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document