State Avoids First Overseas Case Of Safe Haven 10-30-2008 3:10 AM

11-14-2008 3:39 AM

(Lincoln, NE) -- State lawmakers are meeting today to change Nebraska's Safe Haven law. Since the law took affect, there have been 32 children abandoned by their guardians and most of those have been teenagers. The new law will change the age limit to three-days-old, so parents will be restricted from dropping off children and teens. Senator DiAnna Schimek says she would like to see the state of Nebraska fix some of the problems that are exposed by the law. She says she doesn't want it to be forgotten that a majority of the families who abandon their children had already received state services and they either didn't have enough or they ran out of services. Speaker Mike Flood says most of the lawmakers are in support of the new law, and the senators he's spoken with want to help children and teens 18-years-old and younger who need help.