Preventing youth suicide and protecting survivor benefits for children and state custody.

Those are some of the bills passed by the House Committee for Families and Children this morning.

Our Mackenzie Spink was following that and brings us more on how lawmakers are trying to improve the state for the next generations.

There's sometimes House Speaker Pro Tem David Mead says sometimes when children in state custody receive federal benefits, such as survivor or disability benefits, the state uses a portion of that money to reimburse itself for caring for that child.

House Bill 669 would prohibit that and put all of the money aside into a new program called The Success Sequence Savings and Disbursement Plan.

Along the way, there will be milestones that they will reach when they turn 16.

They can get it out for when they get your driver's license for car, whatever it may be.

Again, when they turn 18, if they graduate, there's a they have the ability to pull this on the then or when they go to college or leave the system.

Louisville Democrat Representative Tina Bogan Koski says she originally had reservations about the milestone system, until she spoke with teenagers who were in the Capitol yesterday for Child Advocacy Day.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with four young adults who had been in the foster care system, and I asked them explicitly, how do you feel about this bill and these milestones?

And they said, we think it's really good.

You know, they expressed it was really probably one of the most poignant meetings that I'd had with young people.

You know, they said we weren't raised with the supports that help you learn how to be responsible for yourself.

And so they were very supportive of the success sequence milestones.

And for that reason, I'll support the bill.

House Bill 669 passed unanimously.

Representative Kim measures House Bill 686 also passed unanimously.

It would create the Kentucky Positive Youth Development Commission.

We had a number of youth suicides in Northern Kentucky and, the Northern Kentucky Health Department did a really great job of pulling together stakeholders with back and the state office to try to figure out how to deal with this.

And so this bill is a product of what happened there.

The new commission would promote out of school programs, coordinate state agencies to develop suicide prevention strategies, and support existing community efforts that reduce suicide and self-harm.

Youth advocates say engaging young people and helping them build relationships is proven by research to improve their mental health.

We think it is critically important to create opportunities for young people to have alternatives to screen time, and we see this as a real mechanism to establishing options for young people to engage in out-of-school time activities, mentoring, tutoring, other, positive youth development programing that can create an app can create options for young people to address their mental health issues, but also just to connect with other young people.

The Kentucky Positive Youth Development Commission would be funded by any settlement funds related to how social media harms young people.

The Kentucky Attorney General's office currently has lawsuits against platforms like Roblox and TikTok.

For Kentucky edition, I'm McKenzie Spink.

Thank you.

McKenzie.

The House Families and Children Committee also passed House Concurrent Resolution 36, which would establish the Child Welfare and Family Court Reform Task Force if it is passed by both chambers.