By: Garcia S.B. No. 1932
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the payment of permanency care assistance.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 264.851, Family Code, is amended to read
as follows:
Sec. 264.851. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Foster child" means a child who is or was in the
temporary or permanent managing conservatorship of the department.
(2) "Kinship provider" means a relative of a foster
child, or another adult with a longstanding and significant
relationship with a foster child before the child was placed with
the person by the department, with whom the child resides for at
least six consecutive months after the person becomes licensed by
the department or verified by a licensed child-placing agency or
the department to provide foster care or who has been determined
eligible pursuant to department rules adopted under Section
264.853.
(3) "Permanency care assistance agreement" means a
written agreement between the department and a kinship provider for
the payment of permanency care assistance benefits as provided by
this subchapter.
(4) "Permanency care assistance benefits" means
monthly payments paid by the department to a kinship provider under
a permanency care assistance agreement.
(5) "Relative" means a person related to a foster
child by consanguinity or affinity.
Sec. 264.852. PERMANENCY CARE ASSISTANCE AGREEMENTS.
(a) The department shall enter into a permanency care assistance
agreement with a kinship provider who is eligible to receive
permanency care assistance benefits.
(b) The department may enter into a permanency care
assistance agreement with a kinship provider who is the prospective
managing conservator of a foster child only if the kinship provider
meets the eligibility criteria under federal and state law and
department rule.
(c) A court may not order the department to enter into a
permanency care assistance agreement with a kinship provider unless
the kinship provider meets the eligibility criteria under federal
and state law and department rule, including requirements relating
to the criminal history background check of a kinship provider.
(d) A permanency care assistance agreement may provide for
reimbursement of the nonrecurring expenses a kinship provider
incurs in obtaining permanent managing conservatorship of a foster
child, including attorney's fees and court costs. The
reimbursement of the nonrecurring expenses under this subsection
may not exceed $2,000.
Sec. 264.8521. NOTICE TO APPLICANTS. At the time a person
applies to become licensed by the department or verified by a
licensed child-placing agency or the department to provide foster
care in order to qualify for the permanency care assistance
program, the department or the child-placing agency shall:
(1) notify the applicant that a background check,
including a criminal history record check, will be conducted on the
individual; and
(2) inform the applicant about criminal convictions
that:
(A) preclude an individual from becoming a
licensed foster home or verified agency foster home; and
(B) may also be considered in evaluating the
individual's application.
SECTION 2. Section 264.853, Family Code, is amended to read
as follows:
Sec. 264.853. RULES. (a) The executive commissioner shall
adopt rules necessary to implement the permanency care assistance
program. The rules must:
(1) establish eligibility requirements to receive
permanency care assistance benefits under the program; and
(2) ensure that the program conforms to the
requirements for federal assistance as required by title IV-E of
the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. sec. 670, et seq. [the Fostering
Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Pub.
L. No. 110-351)].
(b) The executive commissioner may adopt rules that permit a
relative or another adult with a longstanding and significant
relationship with a child to qualify for general revenue funded
permanency care assistance benefits, notwithstanding that the
person has not resided with the child for at least six consecutive
months after the person becomes licensed by the department or
verified by a licensed child-placing agency of the department to
provide foster care, if the following conditions are met:
(1) the person has been formally approved by the
department as a relative or other designated caregiver;
(2) the department determines that payment of
permanency care assistance is in the child's best interest; and
(3) the person and child meet any additional
requirements in department rule.
Sec. 264.854. MAXIMUM PAYMENT AMOUNT. The executive
commissioner shall set the maximum monthly amount of assistance
payments under a permanency care assistance agreement in an amount
that does not exceed the amount of the monthly foster care
maintenance payment the department would pay to a foster care
provider caring for the child for whom the kinship provider is
caring.
Sec. 264.855. CONTINUED ELIGIBILITY FOR PERMANENCY CARE
ASSISTANCE BENEFITS AFTER AGE 18. If the department first entered
into a permanency care assistance agreement with a foster child's
kinship provider after the child's 16th birthday, the department
may continue to provide permanency care assistance payments until
the last day of the month of the child's 21st birthday, provided the
child is:
(1) regularly attending high school or enrolled in a
program leading toward a high school diploma or high school
equivalency certificate;
(2) regularly attending an institution of higher
education or a postsecondary vocational or technical program;
(3) participating in a program or activity that
promotes, or removes barriers to, employment;
(4) employed for at least 80 hours a month; or
(5) incapable of any of the activities described by
Subdivisions (1)-(4) due to a documented medical condition.
Sec. 264.856. APPROPRIATION REQUIRED. The department is
not required to provide permanency care assistance benefits under
this subchapter unless the department is specifically appropriated
money for purposes of this subchapter.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.