(1) The purposes of this chapter are:(a) To provide judicial, nonjudicial, and other procedures to address the status offenses of children who are truant from school, run away from their caregivers, or exhibit ungovernable behavior by refusing to follow the household rules of their caregivers and engage in behavior that places the child at risk of harm; and to ensure due process through which children and other interested parties are assured fair hearings by a respectful and respected court and the recognition, protection, and enforcement of their constitutional and other legal rights.
(b) To provide for the care, safety, and protection of children in an environment that cultivates healthy social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development; to ensure the safety of children; and to promote the education, health, and well-being of all children under the state’s care.
(c) To provide for a needs assessment of the child’s needs, strengths, and family dynamics so that the most appropriate services can be provided in the most appropriate environment consistent with the community’s long-term need for public safety and the safety of the individual child, with consideration given to the education and overall well-being of the child.
(d) To preserve and strengthen the child’s family ties whenever possible; provide for temporary shelter placement of the child only when necessary for the child’s education, safety, and welfare and when other less restrictive alternatives have been exhausted; provide custody, care, and education; encourage self-discipline; and increase protective factors when the child is in temporary shelter placement.
(e) To ensure that the adjudication and disposition of a child alleged or found to be a child in need of services be exercised with appropriate discretion and in keeping with the seriousness of the misconduct and the need for services, and that all findings made under this chapter be based upon facts presented at a hearing that meets the constitutional standards of fundamental fairness and due process.
(f) To provide a court process through which school boards are able to access the court for the limited purpose of early truancy intervention for children, subject to compulsory education, who are not engaging in regular school attendance, and encourage school attendance by educating children and their families on the importance of regular school attendance and provide services to families to prevent the child’s pattern of truancy from becoming habitual.
