Relating to aid, processes, services, and support staff for children in, adopted from, or in need of foster care, including the establishment of a legal representation for juvenile cases interim study committee, and making appropriations

This bill relates to aid, processes, services, and support staff for children in, adopted from, or in need of foster care, including the establishment of a legal representation for juvenile cases interim study committee. The bill allows a court to adjudicate a child in need of assistance when the child requires treatment to cure or alleviate a serious chemical dependency or mental or behavioral health disorder that compromises the child’s safety or causes untoward aggressive behavior toward others in the household, and the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian is unwilling to provide such treatment, or the parent’s, guardian’s, or custodian’s efforts to secure needed treatment have been exhausted and unsuccessful. Under current law, the child would need treatment to cure or alleviate a serious mental illness or disorder, or emotional damage as evidenced by severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal, or untoward aggressive behavior toward the child’s self or others and the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian is unwilling to provide such treatment. The bill eliminates certain circumstances when a child may be adjudicated as a child in need of assistance. The bill removes the requirement that certain reimbursements to foster parents must be based on 65 percent of the United States department of agriculture estimate of the cost to raise a child in the calendar year immediately preceding the fiscal year. The bill also removes the additional stipend for special needs children. Instead, the bill requires the department of health and human services (HHS) to adopt rules relating to the foster parent reimbursements and requires HHS to review the foster parent reimbursement rates no less than once every three years. Under current law, if a person is entitled to periodic support payments pursuant to an order or judgment entered in any action for support, and the person also is or has a child receiving foster care services, then the support payments are automatically assigned to HHS.2, who is not licensed under Code chapter 237 (child foster care facilities) to provide child foster care. The bill requires HHS to reimburse an adoption petitioner for the costs of the preplacement and postplacement investigations related to the adoption up to a maximum amount of $2,000 per investigation. The bill prohibits HHS from making such reimbursements until the person performing the preplacement background check approves the adoption petitioner’s initial required background checks. The bill renames the 2023 appropriation for child and family services from the federal temporary assistance for needy families block grant to “child protective services”. The bill also adds an additional $3 million to the appropriation and requires up to $3 million to be used from the appropriation for the kinship caregiver stipend program. This section of the bill is effective upon the bill’s enactment. The bill makes an appropriation from the general fund of the state to HHS for FY 2024-2025 in the amount of $2,623,748 to be used to lower the required ratio of supervisors to social workers from one supervisor for every six and one-half social workers to one supervisor for every five social workers. Moneys so appropriated do not revert at the close of the fiscal year, but remain available for the purposes designated. The bill makes an appropriation from the general fund of the state to HHS for FY 2024-2025 in the amount of $617,530 to increase reimbursement rates paid to foster parents for foster care provided to a child, or when the state is otherwise obligated to pay for a child’s foster care, 10 percent higher than the rates in effect as of June 30, 2024. The appropriated moneys do not revert at the close of the fiscal year, but remain available for the purposes designated. The bill requires HHS to amend its administrative rules to increase the adoption subsidy 10 percent higher than the rates in effect as of June 30, 2024, provided that the person to receive the adoption subsidy qualified for payments by adopting a child on or after the effective date of the bill. The bill requires HHS to establish a legal representation for juvenile cases interim study committee for the 2024 legislative interim to investigate, study, and propose legislation relating to client-directed representation for children in juvenile court cases. The bill details who shall be the voting committee members. The bill requires the committee to submit a report to the general assembly by January 10, 2025.