HB 1170 - DIGEST

     Ensures the health and safety of newborn infants who have been abandoned and exempts from criminal liability persons who abandon them into the custody of a qualified person.

     Directs the secretary of the department of social and health services to convene a fifteen-member task force to recommend methods of implementing this act, including a program of public education regarding the provisions of this act.

     Appropriates the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, for the biennium ending June 30, 2003, to the department of social and health services for the purposes of this act.  No expenditures may be made to implement the recommendations of the task force prior to March 1, 2002.