HB 2356-S.E - DIGEST
(AS OF HOUSE 2ND READING 2/14/02)
Provides that, within existing resources, the department of social and health services, in cooperation with the office of the superintendent of public instruction, shall convene a working group to prepare a plan for the legislature which addresses educational stability and continuity for school age children who enter into short-term foster care.
Requires the working group to develop a plan for assuring that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in the school placement of a child in short-term foster care.
Requires the Nooksack Valley and Mount Vernon school districts to implement a pilot project within existing resources to assist school age children in foster care fewer than seventy-five days to continue attending the school where they were enrolled before entering foster care. The pilot project shall be implemented as provided in this section no later than March 30, 2002, and shall conclude June 30, 2003. Data from the pilot project shall be compiled and submitted to the working group established in this act no later than July 30, 2002, and periodically thereafter.
Provides that a school age child who enters foster care on or after March 30, 2002, shall, unless it is determined to be not in the best interest of the child, continue attending the school where she or he was enrolled before entering foster care, notwithstanding the physical location of the child's principal abode.
Provides that the department of social and health services, the school the child was attending prior to entering foster care, and the school that serves the child's foster home shall negotiate a plan for transporting the child to the school the child was attending prior to entering foster care.
Provides that, if the department of social and health services places a child in foster care, and the child does not continue to attend the school the child was attending prior to entering foster care, the department shall notify the school about the change.