AN ACT Relating to
providing services for persons through twenty years of age, who are or who have
been in foster care; amending RCW 74.13.031; and adding a new section to
chapter 74.13 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 74.13.031 and 1999 c
267 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:
The department shall
have the duty to provide child welfare services and shall:
(1) Develop,
administer, supervise, and monitor a coordinated and comprehensive plan that
establishes, aids, and strengthens services for the protection and care of
runaway, dependent, or neglected children.
(2) Within available
resources, recruit an adequate number of prospective adoptive and foster homes,
both regular and specialized, i.e. homes for children of ethnic minority,
including Indian homes for Indian children, sibling groups, handicapped and
emotionally disturbed, teens, pregnant and parenting teens, and annually report
to the governor and the legislature concerning the department's success in:
(a) Meeting the need for adoptive and foster home placements; (b) reducing the
foster parent turnover rate; (c) completing home studies for legally free
children; and (d) implementing and operating the passport program required by
RCW 74.13.285. The report shall include a section entitled "Foster Home
Turn-Over, Causes and Recommendations."
(3) Investigate
complaints of any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or
caretaker that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, or sexual
abuse or exploitation, or that presents an imminent risk of serious harm, and
on the basis of the findings of such investigation, offer child welfare
services in relation to the problem to such parents, legal custodians, or
persons serving in loco parentis, and/or bring the situation to the attention
of an appropriate court, or another community agency: PROVIDED, That an
investigation is not required of nonaccidental injuries which are clearly not
the result of a lack of care or supervision by the child's parents, legal
custodians, or persons serving in loco parentis. If the investigation reveals
that a crime against a child may have been committed, the department shall
notify the appropriate law enforcement agency.
(4) Offer, on a
voluntary basis, family reconciliation services to families who are in
conflict.
(5) Monitor out-of-home
placements, on a timely and routine basis, to assure the safety, well-being,
and quality of care being provided is within the scope of the intent of the
legislature as defined in RCW 74.13.010 and 74.15.010, and annually submit a
report measuring the extent to which the department achieved the specified
goals to the governor and the legislature.
(6) Have authority to
accept custody of children from parents and to accept custody of children from
juvenile courts, where authorized to do so under law, to provide child welfare
services including placement for adoption, and to provide for the physical care
of such children and make payment of maintenance costs if needed. Except where
required by Public Law 95-608 (25 U.S.C. Sec. 1915), no private adoption agency
which receives children for adoption from the department shall discriminate on
the basis of race, creed, or color when considering applications in their
placement for adoption.
(7) Have authority to
provide temporary shelter to children who have run away from home and who are
admitted to crisis residential centers.
(8) Have authority to
purchase care for children; and shall follow in general the policy of using
properly approved private agency services for the actual care and supervision
of such children insofar as they are available, paying for care of such
children as are accepted by the department as eligible for support at reasonable
rates established by the department.
(9) Establish a
children's services advisory committee which shall assist the secretary in the
development of a partnership plan for utilizing resources of the public and
private sectors, and advise on all matters pertaining to child welfare,
licensing of child care agencies, adoption, and services related thereto. At
least one member shall represent the adoption community.
(10) Have authority to
provide continued foster care or group care for individuals from eighteen
through twenty years of age to enable them to complete their high school or
vocational school program.
(11) Have authority
within funds appropriated for foster care services to purchase care for Indian
children who are in the custody of a federally recognized Indian tribe or
tribally licensed child-placing agency pursuant to parental consent, tribal
court order, or state juvenile court order; and the purchase of such care shall
be subject to the same eligibility standards and rates of support applicable to
other children for whom the department purchases care.
Notwithstanding any
other provision of RCW 13.32A.170 through 13.32A.200 and 74.13.032 through
74.13.036, or of this section all services to be provided by the department of
social and health services under subsections (4), (6), and (7) of this section,
subject to the limitations of these subsections, may be provided by any program
offering such services funded pursuant to Titles II and III of the federal
juvenile justice and delinquency prevention act of 1974.
(12) Within amounts
appropriated for this specific purpose, provide preventive services to families
with children that prevent or shorten the duration of an out-of-home placement.
(13) Have authority
to provide independent living services to youths, including individuals
eighteen through twenty years of age, who are or have been in foster care.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
2. A new section is added
to chapter 74.13 RCW to read as follows:
Independent
living services include assistance in achieving basic educational requirements
such as a GED, enrollment in vocational and technical training programs offered
at the community and vocational colleges, and obtaining and maintaining
employment; and accomplishing basic life skills such as money management,
nutrition, preparing meals, and cleaning house. A baseline skill level in
ability to function productively and independently shall be determined at
entry. Performance shall be measured and must demonstrate improvement from involvement
in the program. Each recipient shall have a plan for achieving independent
living skills by the time the recipient reaches age twenty-one. The plan shall
be written within the first thirty days of placement and reviewed every ninety
days. A recipient who fails to consistently adhere to the elements of the plan
shall be subject to reassessment by the professional staff of the program and
may be declared ineligible to receive services.
