Youth centers would follow listed names and gender-separation rules

The Department of Health and Human Services would operate the named youth centers under single-sex treatment rules and provide safe gender separation at other youth centers. The rules cover Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Kearney, Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva, and other legally operated youth rehabilitation and treatment centers. Kearney could treat boys or girls, but not both at the same time. Geneva would treat girls only. In an emergency, a center could treat juveniles of both genders for up to seven days while maintaining safe and appropriate separation. An emergency would include a public health emergency or conditions such as fire, flood, tornado, another natural disaster, or damage that makes a center uninhabitable. Inadequate staffing would not qualify. The text does not state a clear new effective date for these proposed rules.

The introduced text would list six official names for state institutions supervised by the Department of Health and Human Services. The list includes Beatrice State Developmental Center, Lincoln Regional Center, Norfolk Regional Center, Hastings Regional Center, and the Kearney and Geneva youth rehabilitation and treatment centers. The text does not state a clear new effective date for the proposed list of names.

The proposal states that covered institutions should not delay court-ordered or otherwise necessary inpatient or residential substance-use or behavioral-health treatment for juveniles. This applies to department-supervised institutions that provide inpatient or subacute substance-use treatment or behavioral-health residential treatment to juveniles under juvenile-court jurisdiction. The treatment must have been found necessary under the cited juvenile code provision or ordered by a juvenile court. The text does not state a clear new effective date for this proposed treatment provision.