ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 636
(By Senators Prezioso, Jenkins and Foster)
____________
[Passed March 10, 2010; in effect ninety days from passage.]
____________
AN ACT to amend and reenact §49-7-34 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to
reconstituting the Commission to
Study Residential Placement of Children.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §49-7-34 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§49-7-34. Commission to Study Residential Placement of Children.
(a) The Legislature finds that the state's current system of
serving children and families in need of or at risk of needing
social, emotional and behavioral health services is fragmented.
The existing categorical structure of government programs and their
funding streams discourages collaboration, resulting in duplication
of efforts and a waste of limited resources. Children are usually
involved in multiple child-serving systems, including child welfare, juvenile justice and special education. More than ten
percent of children presently in care are presently in out-of-state
placements. Earlier efforts at reform have focused on quick fixes
for individual components of the system at the expense of the
whole. It is the purpose of this section to establish a mechanism
to achieve systemic reform by which all of the state's child-
serving agencies involved in the residential placement of at-risk
youth jointly and continually study and improve upon this system
and make recommendations to their respective agencies and to the
Legislature regarding funding and statutory, regulatory and policy
changes. It is further the Legislature's intent to build upon
these recommendations to establish an integrated system of care for
at-risk youth and families that makes prudent and cost-effective
use of limited state resources by drawing upon the experience of
successful models and best practices in this and other
jurisdictions, which focuses on delivering services in the least
restrictive setting appropriate to the needs of the child, and
which produces better outcomes for children, families and the
state.
(b) There is hereby created within the Department of Health
and Human Resources the Commission to Study the Residential
Placement of Children. The commission consists of the Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human Resources, the Commissioner of
the Bureau for Children and Families, the Commissioner for the
Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities, the Commissioner for the Bureau for Medical Services, the State
Superintendent of Schools, a representative of local educational
agencies, the Director of the Office of Institutional Educational
Programs, the Director of the Office of Special Education Programs
and Assurance, the Director of the Division of Juvenile Services
and the Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorney's Institute.
At the discretion of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals,
circuit and family court judges and other court personnel,
including the Administrator of the Supreme Court of Appeals and the
Director of the Juvenile Probation Services Division, may serve on
the commission. These statutory members may further designate
additional persons in their respective offices who may attend the
meetings of the commission if they are the administrative head of
the office or division whose functions necessitate their inclusion
in this process. In its deliberations, the commission shall also
consult and solicit input from families and service providers.
(c) The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Resources shall serve as chair of the commission, which shall meet
on a
quarterly
basis at the call of the chair.
(d) At a minimum, the commission shall study:
(1) The current practices of placing children out-of-home and
into in-residential placements, with special emphasis on
out-of-state placements;
(2) The adequacy, capacity, availability and utilization of
existing in-state facilities to serve the needs of children requiring residential placements;
(3) Strategies and methods to reduce the number of children
who must be placed in out-of-state facilities and to return
children from existing out-of-state placements, initially targeting
older youth who have been adjudicated delinquent;
(4) Staffing, facilitation and oversight of multidisciplinary
treatment planning teams;
(5) The availability of and investment in community-based,
less restrictive and less costly alternatives to residential
placements;
(6) Ways in which up-to-date information about in-state
placement availability may be made readily accessible to state
agency and court personnel, including an interactive secure web
site;
(7) Strategies and methods to promote and sustain cooperation
and collaboration between the courts, state and local agencies,
families and service providers, including the use of inter-agency
memoranda of understanding, pooled funding arrangements and sharing
of information and staff resources;
(8) The advisability of including "no-refusal" clauses in
contracts with in-state providers for placement of children whose
treatment needs match the level of licensure held by the provider;
(9) Identification of in-state service gaps and the
feasibility of developing services to fill those gaps, including
funding;
(10) Identification of fiscal, statutory and regulatory
barriers to developing needed services in-state in a timely and
responsive way;
(11) Ways to promote and protect the rights and participation
of parents, foster parents and children involved in out-of-home
care;
(12) Ways to certify out-of-state providers to ensure that
children who must be placed out-of-state receive high quality
services consistent with this state's standards of licensure and
rules of operation; and
(13) Any other ancillary issue relative to foster care
placement.
(e) On or before December 1, 2010, the commission shall report
to the
Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human
Resources Accountability
its conclusions and recommendations,
including an implementation plan whereby:
(1) Out-of-state placements shall be reduced by at least ten
percent per year and by at least fifty percent within three years;
(2) Child-serving agencies shall develop joint operating and
funding proposals to serve the needs of children and families that
cross their jurisdictional boundaries in a more seamless way;
(3) Steps shall be taken to obtain all necessary federal plan
waivers or amendments in order for agencies to work collaboratively
while maximizing the availability of federal funds;
(4) Agencies shall enter into memoranda of understanding to assume joint responsibilities;
(5) System of care components and cooperative relationships
shall be incrementally established at the local, state and regional
levels, with links to existing resources, such as family resource
networks and regional summits, wherever possible; and
(6) Recommendations for changes in fiscal, statutory and
regulatory provisions are included for legislative action.
__________