Jim and Nina Kelly

The bill allows family court to proceed with parental fitness tests without a conviction, bypassing due process by not requiring a legal finding of guilt. The bill creates unmeasurable metrics of abuse to extend to "emotional" and "psychological" and while we understand these are real traumas, we do not believe that the burden of proof to have your child taken from you should include anything that cannot be measured. Additionally they include this new term of "parentification" as abuse. Not only can this not be measured, it is a new "therapy" term, that could easily be misconstrued and is certainly not grounds for abuse. Finally, we are very upset that the bill lowers the standard of evidence by using the "preponderance of the evidence" standard instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt." The bill treats abuse and neglect more like civil than criminal matters, potentially leading to unjust loss of parental rights without sufficient proof of wrongdoing.