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Authorize the use of a newborn safety device for the voluntary surrender of a newborn and to make clarifying changes.

South Dakota will now allow emergency medical services providers and licensed child placement agencies to install "newborn safety devices"—secure, temperature-controlled boxes—where parents can anonymously surrender newborns up to 60 days old. When a newborn is placed in one of these devices, an alarm automatically alerts staff and 911, ensuring the child receives immediate care. This new option supplements the existing law that already allowed voluntary surrender directly to a provider or agency.

Revise a provision related to the termination of parental rights of a child adjudicated abused or neglected.

HB 1195 clarifies the language in South Dakota law that allows courts to terminate parental rights when a parent has committed certain serious crimes against a child, including sexual abuse, torture, abandonment, or severe neglect. The bill updates the wording to make clear that crimes committed under South Dakota law or similar crimes under another state's or local law can all be grounds for termination. This change improves the clarity of the statute without fundamentally changing which crimes qualify as reasons to end parental rights.

Require age verification by websites containing material that is harmful to minors, and to provide a penalty therefor.

South Dakota websites that host substantial amounts of material harmful to minors must now verify that users are at least 18 years old before granting access. The bill updates the state's existing obscenity laws to define what counts as a "covered platform" and creates penalties for sites that fail to implement this age verification requirement.

Increase the minimum age for marriage.

South Dakota would raise the minimum marriage age to 18 years old, eliminating the current allowance for 16- and 17-year-olds to marry with parental consent. The bill removes the old rule requiring written parental consent documentation to be filed with the county register of deeds before issuing a marriage license to minors.

Require age verification by websites containing material that is harmful to minors, and to provide a penalty therefor.

South Dakota websites that regularly host or distribute material harmful to minors must now verify that users are adults before allowing access to such content. The bill updates existing obscenity laws to define what counts as a "covered platform" subject to these age verification requirements and establishes penalties for non-compliance. This expands the state's restrictions on adult content by placing the burden on websites to block minors rather than relying solely on prosecution of distributors.

Revise certain provisions related to sexual contact with a child under sixteen.

This bill clarifies South Dakota's law against sexual contact with children under sixteen by explicitly stating that touching a child's buttocks or upper inner thighs with sexual intent is prohibited, not just touching their breasts or genitals. It also extends the time period for filing charges in these cases from seven years to either seven years or when the victim reaches age twenty-five, whichever is longer. Additionally, the bill creates a narrow exception allowing people less than five years older than a thirteen-year-old victim to be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor instead of a felony.

Revise a provision related to sexual contact with a child under eighteen.

This bill reorganizes South Dakota's law against sexual abuse of minors by an adult in a position of authority or family member, clarifying that the adult must be at least five years older than the victim. The main change consolidates the requirements into a clearer structure but doesn't alter the core crime itself—adults in authority positions or close family members still cannot engage in sexual contact with minors under eighteen.

Permit a court to order family therapy or reunification therapy in a custody or visitation dispute.

South Dakota courts can now order parents involved in custody or visitation disputes to participate in family therapy or reunification therapy to help them develop or follow their parenting plans, with costs split between the parties. However, the court cannot order this therapy if one parent has been a victim of domestic abuse committed by the other parent, or if a child has been abused by one of the parents—unless the court finds there are special circumstances that override this protection.

Provide protections for parental rights.

This bill establishes parental rights as a fundamental right in South Dakota law and prohibits state agencies, schools, and government officials from interfering with parents' decisions about their children's upbringing, education, healthcare, religious training, and school records access. The law specifically protects parents' rights to choose their child's school type (public, private, home school, etc.), make all health and mental health decisions, direct moral and religious training, and participate in school organizations.

Modify the requirement for payment of a private home study by the Department of Social Services.

This bill removes the requirement that people seeking to adopt a child pay for their own home study. Instead, the Department of Social Services must now cover the full cost of home studies from its state budget, though the Department can set limits on how much it will reimburse for each study.

Prohibit a school district from offering a reward to or imposing disciplinary action on a student to incentivize the return of required parental consent forms.

School districts cannot punish students or offer them rewards to encourage the return of routine parental consent forms that schools require at the start of each year. This new law prevents schools from using student discipline or incentives as a way to get parents to sign and return standard handbook forms.

Permit a school district to implement a new or revised section 504 plan, individualized family service plan, or individualized education program for a student who is the child of an active-duty member of the United States armed forces.

School districts must implement a new or revised special education or disability services plan within 30 days when a student whose parent is being militarily transferred to South Dakota enrolls, unless the school district staff agree to continue the student's existing plan from their previous school. This applies to students who have a Section 504 plan, individualized education program (IEP), or individualized family service plan. The bill requires the military family to provide the current plan to the school district before enrollment.

Provide tuition for a student who is placed in a residential treatment center that provides educational programming.

When a student is placed in a residential treatment center that offers educational programs, the local school district where that center is located must provide education for the student and pay tuition according to existing state funding formulas. This bill clarifies that students already enrolled in a school district or state-operated school remain entitled to tuition funding when placed in such treatment centers, unless they were placed by the Department of Corrections or Department of Social Services.

Revise certain provisions related to the rights and obligations of a father of a child born to an unmarried mother.

This bill changes how unmarried fathers establish legal rights to their children born outside of marriage. Instead of requiring a father to publicly acknowledge the child and formally adopt it, the new law automatically recognizes a father's parental status if he does any one of three things: takes the child into his household, contributes financially to the child's support, or helps supervise and care for the child. Once established, the father's relationship to the child is treated the same as if the child were born to a married couple, without needing to follow additional adoption procedures.

Establish the manner of determining payments for the child care assistance program.

South Dakota is clarifying how the state calculates and pays for its child care assistance program by requiring the Department of Social Services to establish specific payment determination methods through administrative rules. The bill makes it mandatory (rather than optional) for the secretary of social services to adopt rules covering payment amounts, eligibility, and other program details that were previously discretionary. This change gives the department clear authority to set consistent payment structures for families and child care providers participating in the assistance program.

Clarify informed consent requirements for the provision of prenatal and postnatal care to a minor.

This bill allows pregnant minors to consent to their own prenatal, delivery, and postnatal medical care if a healthcare provider believes they have the mental capacity to do so, but only after the provider makes a reasonable effort to get parental consent and documents that effort. A minor can self-consent under this new rule only if their parent or guardian is unavailable or unable to consent due to mental or physical incapacity. The rule does not apply to legally emancipated minors, who already have broader consent rights.

To require age verification before an individual may access an application from an online application store.

South Dakota will require online application stores (like Apple's App Store or Google Play) to verify a user's age before allowing access to apps, and to share age category information with app developers so they can enforce age-appropriate content restrictions. The law creates new definitions for age categories (children under 13, younger teenagers 13-15, older teenagers 16-17, and adults 18+) and requires app stores to display age ratings and content descriptions to help users understand what's appropriate for each age group. This is a new requirement with no existing state law on this topic to replace.

Make an appropriation to the Department of Human Services for reimbursing the cost of respite care services for caregivers of individuals with dementia and to declare an emergency.

South Dakota is appropriating $500,000 to help family caregivers pay for respite care services (temporary break care) for people with Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Caregivers who are at least 18 years old, apply through the Department of Human Services, and demonstrate a need for respite care can be reimbursed, with priority given to those who have exhausted federal funding under the Older Americans Act.