Nebraska law makers discussed adding age limits to the state's safe haven law during a public hearing Monday. 34 children have been dropped-off at state hospitals since the law took effect in July -- many preteens and teenagers with mental health problems. And as Reporter Dena Richardson explains, access and availability to treatment is now coming into question.   

More than 90-percent of the children abandoned under Nebraska's safe haven law had accessed some sort of mental health service in the past. On Monday, a legislative committee heard from both the Director of Children and Family Services and a mother who says she ran out of options.

Lavinia Cooper told the committee that her son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, ADHD and ODD at 8 years of age. After little success with treatment and medication, She dropped her child off at an Omaha hospital in September under the protection of the state's safe haven law.

"I told them I was unable to give him the help that he needed," said Cooper. "I stayed with my son even though the hospital staff kept telling me that I could leave. Around 11:45 that night, I gave him a kiss and a hug, I told him that I loved him and I went home."

Now law makers are considering age limits for the safe haven law from three days up to one-year-old; all would have excluded Cooper's son.

"Safe haven laws were not meant to provide a way for parents or guardians to abandon their older children by transferring their parental responsibilities to the state," said Todd Landry, Director of Children and Family Services.

But some law makers believe setting age limits ignores a much larger problem -- inadequate services for troubled children and teens.

"Services are being cut in each and every way," said Nebraska State Senator Annette Dubas. "We cannot ignore the problems that are being eliminated across the board."

But Landry said, "Clearly the data we have seen so far is that those services were in fact available."

29 of the 34 children dropped-off under the safe haven law are still in Nebraska. Three of the children are currently receiving treatment level services, and the rest are either in foster care or living in a relative's home.

The special session continues Tuesday with the first round of debate.