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Aiden's Law codifies process to protect infants

Plan of Safe Care required for drug-exposed children
May 23, 2018

Three years ago, 5-month-old Aiden Hundley struggled to survive after suffering injuries at the hands of his drug-addled parents. His death a few months later forced officials to address ways to protect children from their parents' abuse.

On May 8, the state Legislature officially approved a process to help prevent future tragedies like Aiden's.

“This bill mirrors what the federal law has required,” said Jen Donahue, a child abuse investigation coordinator who has worked on creating a framework of care since Aiden's death.

Since 2015, she said, social workers have created plans of safe care for children born exposed to drugs – a process absent when Aiden was released from Beebe Healthcare to his parents, Casey Layton and Doyle Hundley. At the time, a caseworker lost track of the family; Aiden was later reported unresponsive in a Harbeson home. Before he died, Aiden was on life support for five months with multiple broken bones, a serious head injury and a blood infection from E.coli that had penetrated his brain.

In January, Layton was sentenced 15 years after pleading guilty to one count of murder by neglect.

Hundley was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in February to murder by neglect. A prosecutor in the case said Aiden's death was “the most horrific and tragic case I have dealt with in my career.”

House Bill 140, passed overwhelmingly by both the House and Senate, makes the process official. Gov. John Carney said he fully supports the bill, and he intends to sign it into law.

The bill is not punitive; a few revisions took it out of the child abuse and neglect section of Delaware law, and created a new section, outlining care for children born exposed to drugs or other substances.

The intent is to keep the family together, said Donahue, noting Division of Family Services will intercede if there is any risk or concern for the child's safety as they would in any other potential abuse situation.

“We have dedicated social workers in the hospitals to make sure a child is safe,” said Trenee Parker, director of the Division of Family Services.

A fiscal note for $285,000 is attached to the bill to pay for four caseworkers and partially pay an administrator. Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes, said he doubts there will be much opposition to the fiscal note because the bill is important.

“There's a fiscal note, but I think it's one we can all agree on,” he said.

Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, said the bill known as Aiden's Law gives caseworkers a tool to help prevent the kind of abuse Aiden endured in his short life.

“This was a case that really shook our community,” he said. “Hopefully this bill will cut down on these children going back into environments where they should not be.”

Donahue said caseworkers and hospital staff work closely with family members to help prevent another child from dying the way Aiden did.

“This bill is really in Aiden's honor,” she said.

 

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