Idaho law restricted suicide hotline, Band-Aids for kids. A new bill could fix it
The Idaho Legislature passed a bill in 2024 that required parental consent for people under 18 to access medical care in most cases. But it had unintended consequences. The bill restricted the ability for kids to get help from the suicide hotline — a resource they’d long been told to rely on.
Two years later, lawmakers are trying to fix it.
Lawmakers this week advanced a bill that would make several changes to the parental rights law.
The bill would create a specific carve-out for the suicide hotline, allowing children to receive immediate crisis and suicide prevention services — without parental consent — if they call 988. The law also allows the hotline to offer a follow-up call with the child within 48 hours to reassess their safety, review a safety plan and encourage communication with their parents or guardians. Offering follow-up calls is considered best practice, Lee Flinn, the director of the Idaho Crisis & Suicide Hotline, previously told the Statesman.
The existing law has a narrow exception that allows kids to receive medical care without parental consent if a provider determines it’s a medical emergency, and providing care is necessary to prevent “death or imminent, irreparable physical injury.” But not everyone who calls 988 meets that bar.
During the hearing Wednesday, Jace Woods, a freshman at Meridian High School, spoke to lawmakers about his own experience calling the suicide hotline, along with that of a friend. Woods has been working to get the law changed ever since he called 988 late one night last fall and was told by the person who answered that he would need parental consent to continue talking, Woods previously told the Statesman.
The call ended, and he was enraged. He immediately started reaching out to lawmakers.
Standing before the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration committee on Wednesday, Woods urged legislators to approve the bill.
“Imagine being 15, trying to tell your parents that you want to die, not because you hate them, but because you hate yourself. That takes courage that most adults can’t even imagine,” Woods told the committee. “Every single day that this bill goes unclarified and in this language, another child is hung up on.”
Flinn also testified in support of the measure. That human connection, she said, could “be the difference between a crisis escalating or a life being saved.” Flinn also explained the organization’s practices when it receives a call from a minor, and how team members use a safety assessment to determine whether that child meets the bar laid out in the law.
In one exchange, Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, asked Flinn if people at the Idaho Crisis & Suicide Hotline were hanging up on children. Scott said she “can’t imagine” anyone hanging up on kids who share they are planning to die by suicide, and questioned whether there were any politics involved.
“Can you assure me that this is not to make a point or change a law, and that your volunteers would help someone in need?” said Scott, who supported the parental rights bill in 2024. “If you could kind of give me some assurance there, I’d feel really a lot better, because otherwise I would like to defund your program at this point.”
“I can give you full assurance we do not hang up on people. I understand how it can feel very abrupt if a person is assessed at not meeting the emergency criteria, but we are really focused on safety,” Flinn said. “If someone told us that they were holding a gun, we would not end that call.”
What else would the bill do?
The bill also would address a few other issues. Shortly after the 2024 bill became law, the Boise School District sent a message to parents saying schools would need their consent to provide non-life-threatening medical services, including Band-Aids and Tylenol, Idaho Education News reported at the time.
The updated language allows people to offer non-emergency first aid services and care to a child who is sick or injured. That includes dressing wounds, applying topical agents or providing fluids or ice.
“If your child is at school, they fall and scrape themselves, absolutely you can provide first aid. That is not a problem. You do not have to contact the parent,” Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, one of the sponsors of the bill, told the committee. “What happens if your child was in chemistry class and sometimes you’re dealing with chemicals and something exploded and it happened to get in their eyes? Oh no. Now we can’t flush. Absolutely, you can provide first aid.”
The new bill also creates a carve-out that allows a health care provider to treat someone who is pregnant, providing pregnancy testing, prenatal care and peripartum care. The Washington Post reported in 2024 that a pregnant 13-year-old girl was brought to an Idaho emergency room by her great-aunt. The girl’s mother was living in a car, and her grandmother and legal guardian was in jail. It took over two hours to track down the girl’s grandmother to provide verbal consent.
It also allows treatment of minors directly related to an allegation of a crime against the child, or to collect evidence relating to the crime if it’s time-sensitive.
In 2024, people raised concerns about the original bill — which also requires entities to make health care records available to parents in most cases – warning it could be harmful to kids, especially those without supportive parents. When Gov. Brad. Little signed the bill into law, he also worried about the potential outcomes, urging stakeholders to monitor any negative consequences the bill has in allowing kids to access behavioral health supports. He also said the bill could create confusion for medical providers without repealing conflicting sections of code. Shortly after it was signed into law, Idaho Reports reported that the law could prevent minors from getting rape kit exams without parental consent.
During debate, legislators said it was important to address the consequences of the law and to continue working with stakeholders to ensure there are no other unintended results.
“Two years ago, when we passed this, we thought we’d fixed a really good, a big problem, and I think we were all in shock of what a mess it turned out to be,” Rep. Clay Handy, R-Burley, said. “So I hope that we don’t do anything this time that would keep this from moving forward and getting enacted, because it is very problematic the interpretation and the way things are now.”
The committee voted to send the bill to the House floor.
