House Bill 612 / SL 2025-16
HB 612 is a broad child welfare and family services measure that makes numerous changes across North Carolina’s juvenile code, social services laws, adoption statutes, and related criminal and employment provisions. The bill expands the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program to children age 10 and older, creates new procedures for post-adoption contact agreements and orders, and revises permanency planning, review hearings, guardianship, and foster-care placement rules. It also adds new requirements for county departments of social services to use legal counsel in juvenile proceedings and updates procedures for assessments, petitions, and custody orders in abuse, neglect, and dependency cases.
The bill also strengthens protections for children and victims by creating a permanent no-contact order for certain violent sex offense convictions, expanding felony child abuse to include allowing a sexual act upon a child under 16 by a caregiver, and requiring criminal history record checks for applicants offered positions that involve working with children for counties and cities. In addition, it adds a new process for expungement from the responsible individuals list under certain conditions and makes changes to hospital discharge and placement procedures for juveniles in DSS custody receiving mental health treatment.
HB 612 amends multiple chapters of the General Statutes, especially Chapters 7B, 48, 50, 108A, 14, 15A, 153A, and 160A. Its most significant legal effects are to expand eligibility and funding structure for guardianship assistance, create enforceable post-adoption contact orders, revise juvenile court and DSS assessment procedures, and impose new duties on county social services agencies, courts, and local governments. It also changes criminal law by broadening child abuse offenses and authorizing permanent no-contact orders in certain sentencing proceedings, while adding employment-screening requirements for public jobs involving children.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported, as reflected by its enactment into Session Law 2025-16 and final approval by the Governor. The available record shows no committee transcripts or recorded votes in the provided materials, so there is no documented floor or committee debate to indicate organized opposition. Overall, the bill’s structure suggests a policy consensus around child protection, permanency planning, and child welfare system administration.
The bill’s most likely points of contention are the expanded authority and obligations placed on county departments of social services, the new legal-counsel review requirements, and the increased court involvement in placement, review, and post-adoption contact matters. Other potentially sensitive provisions include the permanent no-contact order for violent sex offense convictions, the broadened felony child abuse definition, and the mandatory criminal history checks for child-related public employment. In the child welfare sections, possible tension exists between preserving family reunification efforts and giving courts, DSS, and the Division more control over permanency, placement, and oversight decisions.