NC HB1191: Fixing a Broken Link in Child Welfare

Every day in North Carolina, children are waiting. Waiting for a court date that will reunite them with their family. Waiting for a hearing that will move them closer to a home. Waiting for a system to deliver on its promises

And too often that wait is far longer than necessary — not because the courts are backed up or because families give up, but because someone didn't get the memo.

Literally.

The Problem: A System That Doesn't Talk to Those It Serves

A recent federal audit found that more than 50% of child welfare cases in North Carolina are delayed due to failure to notify or appear at required court hearings. Biological parents miss hearings. Foster parents don't know when to show up. Kinship caregivers and older youth — people who have every right to be present and heard — are left out of the process entirely.

This isn't a failure of intention. It's a failure of infrastructure.

North Carolina currently has no standardized, cross-agency system for notifying the people who need to be at court hearings, Permanency Planning Reviews (PPRs), and family team meetings. The agencies that hold the data — Department of Social Servies (DSS), the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC), Guardian ad Litem (GAL) programs and Indigent Defense Services (IDS) — aren't required or equipped to share information in a coordinated way. The result is a communication gap that too often costs families months of separation and delays permanency for children who have already waited long enough.

The Solution: NC HB1191

NC House Bill 1191 is a direct response to this problem. Building on the momentum of last year's Fostering Care in NC Act (HB612), this legislation would:

• Fund a cross-agency notification system to ensure everyone who should be notified of hearings and meetings actually is.

• Mandate data sharing across DSS, AOC, GAL and IDS so information moves automatically and reliably.

• Protect biological parents, foster parents, kinship caregivers and older youth from being sidelined by a system that neglects to tell them where to be and when.

The bill is sponsored by Representatives Allen Chesser, Donnie Loftis, Timothy Reeder, and Vernetta Alston, and Senator Jim Burgin has introduced similar language as part of the larger child welfare and child care funding bill. Bipartisan support is growing because this isn't a political issue. It's a practical one.

Why This Matters and Why Now

We often talk about child welfare reform in terms of big, systemic overhauls. HB1191 is different. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. It requires agencies that already hold important data to share it with a mandate to make that happen.

Children caught in delayed cases aren't hoping for a policy debate. They're counting on the adults in the room to solve the solvable parts of the problem.

At Sunlight our mission is to reunify families safely and sooner by improving communication, coordination and transparency across the child welfare system. We've experienced firsthand what happens when families are left in the dark, the confusion, the missed opportunities, the unnecessary time apart. And we've seen what's possible when the right people have the right information at the right time.

HB1191 is a meaningful step toward a system where no parent misses a hearing because no one told them about it. No child should spend an extra day in foster care because of a notification gap.

How You Can Help

If you work in child welfare, law, advocacy or technology in North Carolina — or if you simply believe every child deserves a fair shot at permanency — here's what you can do:

1. Share this post and help spread the word about HB1191.

2. Contact your state representative and ask them to support the bill.

3. Follow the bill's progress at ncleg.gov.

The system has failed too many families for too long due to something this fixable. It's time we get it right.