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Senate File 287

Partial Bill History

Bill Text

PAG LIN
  1  1                                              SENATE FILE 287
  1  2 
  1  3                             AN ACT
  1  4 RELATING TO CHILD WELFARE PROVISIONS INVOLVING VOLUNTARY
  1  5    FOSTER CARE PLACEMENTS OF CHILDREN WITH MENTAL RETARDATION 
  1  6    OR OTHER DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY, RELEASE OF CHILD ABUSE
  1  7    INFORMATION, AND ANNUAL GROUP FOSTER CARE AND DECATEGORI-
  1  8    ZATION PLANS, AND PROVIDING A CONTINGENT EFFECTIVE DATE.  
  1  9 
  1 10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
  1 11 
  1 12                           DIVISION I
  1 13                VOLUNTARY FOSTER CARE PLACEMENTS
  1 14    Section 1.  Section 232.175, Code 1999, is amended to read
  1 15 as follows:
  1 16    232.175  PLACEMENT OVERSIGHT.
  1 17    Placement oversight shall be provided pursuant to this
  1 18 division when the parent, guardian, or custodian of a child
  1 19 with mental retardation or other developmental disability
  1 20 requests placement of the child in foster family care for a
  1 21 period of more than thirty days.  The oversight shall be
  1 22 provided through review of the placement every six months by
  1 23 the department's foster care review committees or by a local
  1 24 citizen foster care review board.  Court oversight shall be
  1 25 provided prior to the initial placement and at periodic
  1 26 intervals which shall not exceed twelve months.  It is the
  1 27 purpose and policy of this division to assure the existence of
  1 28 oversight safeguards as required by the federal Child Welfare
  1 29 Act of 1980, Pub. L. No. 96-272, as codified in 42 U.S.C. }
  1 30 671(a)(16), 627(a)(2)(B), and 675(1),(5), while maintaining
  1 31 parental decision-making authority.
  1 32    Sec. 2.  Section 232.178, subsection 4, Code 1999, is
  1 33 amended to read as follows:
  1 34    4.  The petition shall describe the child's emotional,
  1 35 physical, or intellectual disability which requires care and
  2  1 treatment; the reasonable efforts to maintain the child in the
  2  2 child's home; the department's request to the family of a
  2  3 child with mental retardation, other developmental disability,
  2  4 or organic mental illness to determine if any services or
  2  5 support provided to the family will enable the family to
  2  6 continue to care for the child in the child's home; and the
  2  7 reason the child's parent, guardian, or custodian has
  2  8 requested a foster family care placement.  The petition shall
  2  9 also describe the commitment of the parent, guardian, or
  2 10 custodian in fulfilling the responsibilities defined in the
  2 11 case permanency plan and how the placement will serve the
  2 12 child's best interests.
  2 13    Sec. 3.  Section 232.182, subsection 5, unnumbered
  2 14 paragraph 1, Code 1999, is amended to read as follows:
  2 15    After the hearing is concluded, the court shall make and
  2 16 file written findings as to whether reasonable efforts, as
  2 17 defined in section 232.102, subsection 10, have been made and
  2 18 whether the voluntary foster family care placement is in the
  2 19 child's best interests.  The court shall order foster family
  2 20 care placement in the child's best interests if the court
  2 21 finds that all of the following conditions exist:
  2 22    Sec. 4.  Section 232.182, subsection 7, Code 1999, is
  2 23 amended by striking the subsection.
  2 24    Sec. 5.  Section 234.6, subsection 6, paragraph f, Code
  2 25 1999, is amended to read as follows:
  2 26    f.  Services or support provided to a child with mental
  2 27 retardation or other developmental disability or to the
  2 28 child's family, either voluntarily by the department of human
  2 29 services or in accordance with a court order entered under
  2 30 section 222.31 or 232.182, subsection 5.
  2 31    Sec. 6.  DISPOSITIONAL REVIEW.  Any order entered under
  2 32 section 232.182 or 232.183 for a group foster care placement
  2 33 which remains in effect on the effective date of this division
  2 34 shall remain in effect until the court has conducted a
  2 35 dispositional review hearing.  The dispositional review
  3  1 hearing shall be held upon the request of the department of
  3  2 human services or upon the court's own motion.  The review
  3  3 hearing shall be subject to the same procedural requirements
  3  4 as outlined in section 232.183 except that the dispositional
  3  5 orders that the court may enter shall be as provided in this
  3  6 section.  The purpose of the review hearing is to determine
  3  7 whether the child's parent, guardian, or custodian has failed
  3  8 to fulfill responsibilities outlined in the case permanency
  3  9 plan and that the child should remain in a group foster care
  3 10 placement upon termination of the order.  If the court finds
  3 11 the child's parent, guardian, or custodian has failed to
  3 12 fulfill responsibilities outlined in the case permanency plan
  3 13 and that the child should remain in the group foster care
  3 14 placement, the court shall enter an order that the child
  3 15 remain in the placement and that the county attorney or
  3 16 department file, within three days, a petition alleging the
  3 17 child to be a child in need of assistance.  Otherwise, the
  3 18 order entered under section 232.182 or 232.183 shall expire at
  3 19 the close of the dispositional review hearing.
  3 20    Sec. 7.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This division of this Act takes
  3 21 effect on July 1, 1999, or upon the date of approval by the
  3 22 federal government of the waiver request submitted by the
  3 23 department of human services pursuant to 1998 Iowa Acts,
  3 24 chapter 1218, section 7, subsection 10, whichever is later.
  3 25 The department of human services shall notify the Code editor
  3 26 concerning receipt of the federal approval.  
  3 27                           DIVISION II
  3 28               RELEASE OF CHILD ABUSE INFORMATION
  3 29    Sec. 8.  Section 235A.15, subsection 2, paragraph f, Code
  3 30 1999, is amended by adding the following new unnumbered
  3 31 paragraph:
  3 32    NEW UNNUMBERED PARAGRAPH.  To an individual who is
  3 33 requesting information on a specific case of child abuse which
  3 34 resulted in a child fatality or near fatality.  
  3 35                          DIVISION III
  4  1       ANNUAL GROUP FOSTER CARE AND DECATEGORIZATION PLANS
  4  2    Sec. 9.  Section 232.143, subsection 2, Code 1999, is
  4  3 amended to read as follows:
  4  4    2.  For each of the department's regions, representatives
  4  5 appointed by the department and the juvenile court shall
  4  6 establish a plan for containing the expenditures for children
  4  7 placed in group foster care ordered by the court within the
  4  8 budget target allocated to that region pursuant to subsection
  4  9 1.  The plan shall include monthly targets and strategies for
  4 10 developing alternatives to group foster care placements in
  4 11 order to contain expenditures for child welfare services
  4 12 within the amount appropriated by the general assembly for
  4 13 that purpose.  Each regional plan shall be established in
  4 14 advance of the fiscal year to which the regional plan applies
  4 15 within sixty days of the date by which the group foster care
  4 16 budget target for the region is determined.  To the extent
  4 17 possible, the department and the juvenile court shall
  4 18 coordinate the planning required under this subsection with
  4 19 planning for services paid under section 232.141, subsection
  4 20 4.  The department's regional administrator shall communicate
  4 21 regularly, as specified in the regional plan, with the
  4 22 juvenile courts within that region concerning the current
  4 23 status of the regional plan's implementation.
  4 24    Sec. 10.  Section 232.188, subsection 4, Code 1999, is
  4 25 amended to read as follows:
  4 26    4.  In a decategorization agreement, the department and the
  4 27 county's or group of counties' decategorization governance
  4 28 board shall agree on all of the following items:  the
  4 29 governance relationship between the department and the
  4 30 decategorization governance board; the respective areas of
  4 31 autonomy of the department and the board; the budgeting
  4 32 structure for the decategorization; and a method for resolving
  4 33 disputes between the department and the board.  The
  4 34 decategorization agreement shall require the department and
  4 35 the decategorization governance board to agree upon a budget
  5  1 on or before June 15 of the fiscal year preceding the within
  5  2 sixty days of the date by which the regional group foster care
  5  3 budget targets are determined under section 232.143 for the
  5  4 fiscal year to which the budget applies.  The budget may later
  5  5 be modified to reflect new or changed circumstances.  
  5  6 
  5  7 
  5  8                                                             
  5  9                               MARY E. KRAMER
  5 10                               President of the Senate
  5 11 
  5 12 
  5 13                                                             
  5 14                               RON J. CORBETT
  5 15                               Speaker of the House
  5 16 
  5 17    I hereby certify that this bill originated in the Senate and
  5 18 is known as Senate File 287, Seventy-eighth General Assembly.
  5 19 
  5 20 
  5 21                                                             
  5 22                               MICHAEL E. MARSHALL
  5 23                               Secretary of the Senate
  5 24 Approved                , 1999
  5 25 
  5 26 
  5 27                               
  5 28 THOMAS J. VILSACK
  5 29 Governor
     

Text: SF00286                           Text: SF00288
Text: SF00200 - SF00299                 Text: SF Index
Bills and Amendments: General Index     Bill History: General Index

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