SB204 was introduced into the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee on February 11, 2015. Seeing to protect “the total amount of time for visitation granted to a person under the revised Kansas code for care of children,” the bill would amend the Kansas code for care of children to require that:

“A person granted visitation rights shall be entitled to the total amount of time granted for visitation.” The bill provides that, “If a person is late for a scheduled visitation, the time missed due to such lateness shall not be deducted from the total amount of time granted for visitation, and reasonable accommodations shall be made to extend such scheduled visitation or to add such time to another scheduled visitation.”

Although the bill did not receive a hearing and did not make it out of committee before “turn-around” and was not referred to an exempt committee before “turn-around,” the bill suddenly appeared on the Senate Judiciary calendar on Friday, March 13, 2015, for a scheduled hearing on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. in Room 346-S.

This language of this bill would require a case worker allow a parent who showed up to visit with a child removed from the home for safety concerns must be allowed to have the planned time with the child even if the parent showed up one-minute before the scheduled visit, and even if the parent showed up drunk, high, in crisis, and any of a number of other conditions. It is a bad bill.