ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4164
(By Delegates Hatfield, Perdue, Brown, Guthrie,
Campbell, Wells, Wooton, Marshall, Mahan and Givens)
[Passed March 13, 2010; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §49-7-35, relating to
the creation of a pilot program for the placement of children
four to ten years of age in foster care.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §49-7-35, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 7. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§49-7-35. Pilot program for the placement of children four to ten
years of age in foster care; requirements.
(a) This section shall be known as "Jacob's Law."
(b) The Legislature finds that:
(1) The needs of young children are not always adequately
addressed when the Department of Health and Human Resources is
required to take custody of them;
(2) Often the behavior of young children taken from their homes pose special challenges for the department and other
individuals who are charged with their care;
(3) The department must take extraordinary precautions to
prevent serious emotional damage to these children; and
(4) The department has resources within the department that
can be redirected to meet many of the needs of the program required
by this section.
(c) The department shall choose four regions in which to
implement a two-year pilot program to address children ages four
through ten immediately after removal from their homes by the Child
Protective Service Division due to child abuse and neglect and who,
by the nature of their removal, are in crisis.
(d) The program shall:
(1) Include early intervention for children in crisis;
(2) Provide for the development of a short-term and an ongoing
long-term plan for each child;
(3) Provide that each child is evaluated for emotional and
physical trauma and other medical, educational, dental and other
needs, in a timely manner;
(4) Require that each child be assigned an independent
advocate through the community advocacy programs as staff or
volunteers are made available; and
(e) The plans required by subsection (d) of this section
shall:
(1) Address abandonment, separation anxiety, post traumatic
stress and other emotional and physical needs of the child;
(2) Be developed by appropriately trained professional staff;
(3) Require the participation of a child care agency, the
Department of Education, community programs and other appropriate
agencies providing services to children ages four through ten;
and
(4) Be developed to meet the ongoing emotional needs of each
child.
(f) The short-term plan required by subsection (d) of this
section shall address the child's needs for the first thirty days
under the department's supervision.
(g) During the initial evaluation period, and when the child
is being placed into foster care, the department shall when
possible place the child into an enhanced specialized foster care
home. Providers offering enhanced specialized foster care homes
shall include crisis intervention staffed with trained and educated
professional individuals and specialized training on how to manage
a child's reaction to trauma and the crisis of being removed from
the custody of a parent, parents or other guardians, with emphasis
on the child's emotional needs. This program shall limit the
number of children in one location to three foster children at a
time. A greater number is permitted if all of the children are
siblings.
(h) After a short-term and long-term plan is developed, the
department shall:
(1) Provide the foster family with training and education in
the plan;
(2) Evaluate the child and foster parent or parents on the
interaction between the child and parents;
(3) Train the foster parent on how to respond to the child's
emotional crisis and how to understand the child's crisis reactive
behavior; and
(4) Evaluate the foster family on its understanding of the
need for this early intervention and the need for appropriate
crisis management.
(i) The providers of enhanced specialized foster care services
shall:
(1) Create and train a team to provide crisis intervention;
(2) Provide a call system for the enhanced specialized foster
parents and the child so that the enhanced specialized foster
parents or the child can speak to a team member or other
appropriately trained professional during a crisis; and
(3) Require a crisis team member to visit the home if unable
to adequately resolve the crisis over the telephone and to do a
follow up visit within two days to meet with the enhanced
specialized foster parents and child, individually, to determine
the crisis was satisfactorily resolved.
(j) The department shall develop a system to evaluate the
pilot program for outcomes and standards of care and report back to
public, private and community partners. In addition the evaluation
shall be reported to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance
or other designated committees every six months for two years. The
evaluation shall be contracted by the department through an external entity who shall:
(1) Establish measurable outcomes for purposes of evaluation;
(2) Collect, analyze and report data quarterly and annually;
(3) Identify trends and make recommendations for program
improvement;
(4) Conduct an analysis of the impact of the pilot program on
the child's emotional stability including the number of placements
that the child experiences and the basis for required moves;
(5) Provide technical assistance and training to the pilot
program;
(6) Provide leadership in the development of data collection
and outcome reporting models;
(7) Provide feedback for quality improvement to those
responsible for the pilot program; and
(8) Monitor, research and present best practices through
everyday communication and training opportunities.