March 26, 2014, Introduced by Senators CASWELL, NOFS, JONES, MARLEAU and PAPPAGEORGE and referred to the Committee on Families, Seniors and Human Services.
A bill to amend 1939 PA 280, entitled
"The social welfare act,"
by amending sections 115f, 115g, 115h, 115i, 115j, 115l, 115m, 115r,
and 115s (MCL 400.115f, 400.115g, 400.115h, 400.115i, 400.115j,
400.115l, 400.115m, 400.115r, and 400.115s), section 115f as amended
by 2004 PA 193, sections 115g and 115i as amended by 2009 PA 17,
section 115h as added by 1994 PA 238, section 115j as amended by
2011 PA 230, and sections 115l and 115m as amended and sections 115r
and 115s as added by 2002 PA 648.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 115f. As used in this section and sections 115g to 115s:
(a) "Adoptee" means the child who is to be adopted or who is
adopted.
(b)
"Adoption assistance" means a support subsidy or medical
assistance,
or both.payment for support
of a child who has been
placed for adoption. Adoption assistance includes a determination
of care rate or a deferred determination of care rate.
(c)
"Adoption assistance agreement" means an agreement between
the
department and an adoptive parent regarding adoption
assistance.
(c) (d)
"Adoption code" means the
Michigan adoption code,
chapter X of the probate code of 1939, 1939 PA 288, MCL 710.21 to
710.70.
(d) "Adoption support" means adoption assistance or medical
assistance.
(e) "Adoption support agreement" means a written agreement
between the department and an adoptive parent regarding adoption
support.
(f) (e)
"Adoptive parent" means
the parent or parents who
adopt
adopts a child under the adoption code.
(g) (f)
"Certification" means a
determination of eligibility
by
the department that an adoptee is eligible for a support subsidy
or
adoption assistance, a medical subsidy, or both.
(g)
"Child placing agency" means that term as defined in
section
1 of 1973 PA 116, MCL 722.111.
(h) "Child with special needs" means an individual under the
age of 18 years for whom the state has determined all of the
following:
(i) There is a specific judicial finding that the child cannot
or should not be returned to the home of the child's parents.
(ii) A specific factor or condition, or a combination of
factors
and conditions, exists with respect to the child before the
adoption is finalized so that it is reasonable to conclude that the
child cannot be placed with an adoptive parent without providing
adoption
assistance support under this act. The factors or
conditions to be considered may include ethnic or family
background, age, membership in a minority or sibling group, medical
condition, physical, mental, or emotional disability, or length of
time the child has been waiting for an adoptive home.
(iii) A reasonable but unsuccessful effort was made to place the
adoptee with an appropriate adoptive parent without providing
adoption
assistance support under this act or a prospective
placement is the only placement in the best interest of the child.
(i) "Compact" means the interstate compact on adoption and
medical assistance as enacted in sections 115r and 115s.
(j) "Court" means the family division of circuit court.
(k) "Deferred determination of care agreement" means a written
agreement to pay a deferred determination of care rate between the
department and the adoptive parent of a child who is not considered
to need extraordinary care or expense at the time an adoption is
finalized, but who may need extraordinary care or expense after an
adoption is finalized.
(l) "Deferred determination of care rate" means a supplemental
payment, in addition to adoption assistance, that may be justified
when extraordinary care or expense is required according to a
deferred determination of care agreement. A deferred determination
of care rate shall be equal to the rate that the child would have
received if certification required under section 115g had been made
before the adoption was finalized. The supplemental payment for a
deferred determination of care rate shall be based on the same case
situations described in subdivision (n) for a supplemental payment
for a determination of care rate.
(m) (k)
"Department" means the family
independence
agency.department of human services.
(n) "Determination of care rate" means a supplemental payment
to the standard age appropriate foster care rate that may be
justified when extraordinary care or expense is required. The
supplemental payment shall be based on 1 or more of the following
for which additional care is required of the foster care parent or
an additional expense exists:
(i) A physically disabled child for whom the foster care
provider must provide measurably greater supervision and care.
(ii) A child with special psychological or psychiatric needs
that require extra time and a measurably greater amount of care and
attention by the foster care provider.
(iii) A child requiring a special diet that is more expensive
than a normal diet and that requires extra time and effort by the
foster care provider to obtain and prepare.
(iv) A child whose severe acting out or antisocial behavior
requires a measurably greater amount of care and attention of the
foster care provider.
(o)
(l) "Foster
care" means placement of a child outside the
child's
parental home by and under the department's
supervision of
a
child placing agency, the court, the department, or the
department
of community health.by a
court of jurisdiction.
(p) (m)
"Medical assistance"
means the federally aided medical
assistance
program under title XIX. of the social security act,
chapter
531, 49 Stat. 620, 42 U.S.C. 1396 to 1396r-6 and 1396r-8 to
1396v.
(q) (n)
"Medical subsidy" means payment
for medical, surgical,
hospital,
and related expenses necessitated by a specified
physical,
mental, or emotional condition of a child who has been
placed
for adoption.a reimbursement
program that assists in paying
for medical costs for an adopted child who has an identified
physical, mental, or emotional condition that existed, or the cause
of which existed, before finalization of the adoption.
(r) (o)
"Medical subsidy
agreement" means an agreement between
the department and an adoptive parent regarding a medical subsidy.
(s) (p)
"Nonrecurring adoption
expenses" means reasonable and
necessary adoption fees, court costs, attorney fees, and other
expenses that are directly related to the legal adoption of a child
with special needs. Nonrecurring adoption expenses do not include
costs or expenses incurred in violation of state or federal law or
that have been reimbursed from other sources or funds.
(t) (q)
"Other expenses that are
directly related to the legal
adoption of a child with special needs" means adoption costs
incurred by or on behalf of the adoptive parent and for which the
adoptive parent carries the ultimate liability for payment,
including the adoption study, health and psychological
examinations, supervision of the placement before adoption, and
transportation and reasonable costs of lodging and food for the
child or adoptive parent if necessary to complete the adoption or
placement process.
(u) (r)
"Party state" means a
state that becomes a party to
the interstate compact on adoption and medical assistance.
(v) (s)
"Placement" means a
placement or commitment, including
the necessity of removing the child from his or her parental home,
as approved by the court under an order of disposition issued under
section 18(1)(c) or (d) of chapter XIIA of the probate code of
1939, 1939 PA 288, MCL 712A.18.
(w) (t)
"Residence state" means
the state in which the child
is a resident by virtue of the adoptive parent's residency.
(x) "Standard age appropriate foster care rate" means the
scheduled uniform rate that is to be paid for a child who requires
no extraordinary care in relation to age other than what is
normally expected of a child placed in foster care.
(y) (u)
"State" means a state of
the United States, the
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin
Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or
a territory or possession of the United States.
(v)
"Support subsidy" means payment for support of a child who
has
been placed for adoption.
Sec.
115g. (1) The department may pay a support subsidy
adoption assistance to an adoptive parent of an adoptee who is
placed in the home of the adoptive parent under the adoption code
or under the adoption laws of another state or a tribal government,
if all of the following requirements are met:
(a) The department has certified that the adoptee is a child
with special needs.
(b) Certification is made before the adoptee's eighteenth
birthday.
(c)
Certification is made and the contract adoption support
agreement
is signed by the adoptive parent or adoptive parents and
the department before the adoption is finalized.
(2)
The department shall determine eligibility for the support
subsidy
adoption assistance without regard to the income of the
adoptive
parent. or parents. The maximum amount shall
be equal to
the rate that the child received in the family foster care
placement or the rate the child would have received if he or she
had been in a family foster care placement at the time of adoption.
This
rate includes the difficulty determination
of care rate that
was paid or would have been paid for the adoptee in a family foster
care placement, except that the amount shall be increased to
reflect increases made in the standard age appropriate foster care
rate paid by the department. The department shall not implement a
policy
to limit that reduces the maximum amount at to an
amount
less
than the family foster care rate, including the difficulty
determination of care rate, that was paid for the adoptee while the
adoptee was in family foster care.
(3) The department shall pay a deferred determination of care
rate to an adoptive parent of an adoptee who is placed in the home
of the adoptive parent under the adoption code or under the
adoption laws of another state or a tribal government, if all of
the following requirements are met:
(a) The department has certified that the adoptee requires
extraordinary care or expense due to a condition the cause of which
existed before the adoption was finalized.
(b) Certification is made before the adoptee's eighteenth
birthday.
(c) A deferred determination of care agreement was signed
before the adoption was finalized.
(4) Before an adoption is finalized, the department shall
verbally explain the purpose of a deferred determination of care
agreement to the adoptive parent.
(5) An adoptive parent may only request 1 certification be
made under subsection (3) per adoptee placed in the adoptive
parent's home.
(6) (3)
The department shall complete the
certification
process
within 30 days after it receives a request for a support
subsidy.adoption assistance or deferred determination
of care rate.
Sec.
115h. (1) The Except as
provided in subsection (2), the
department may pay a medical subsidy as reimbursement for services
either
to a service provider or to the
adoptive parent or parents
of an adoptee who is placed for adoption in the home of the
adoptive
parent or parents pursuant to under
the adoption code or
the laws of any other state or a tribal government, if all of the
following requirements are met:
(a) The expenses to be covered by the medical subsidy are
necessitated by a physical, mental, or emotional condition of the
adoptee that existed or the cause of which existed before the
adoption petition was filed or certification was established,
whichever occurred first.
(b) The adoptee was in foster care at the time the petition
for
adoption was filed. This subdivision does not apply to
adoptions
confirmed pursuant to the adoption code before June 28,
1992.
(c) Certification was made before the adoptee's eighteenth
birthday.
(2) The department shall not pay a medical subsidy to an
adoptive parent for providing treatment or services to his or her
own adopted child.
(3) (2)
The department shall determine the
amount of the
medical subsidy without respect to the income of the adoptive
parent or parents. The department shall not pay a medical subsidy
until
all other available public money and third party payment is
used
payments have been exhausted. For purposes of this subsection,
third party payment is available if an adoptive parent has an
option, at or after the time of certification, to obtain from the
parent's employer health coverage for the child, with or without
cost to the adoptive parent. The department may waive this
subsection in cases of undue hardship.
(4) (3)
The adoptive parent or parents may
request a medical
subsidy
before or after the confirmation of the adoption is
finalized. A medical subsidy requested after the adoptee is placed
in adoption is effective the date the application request is
received by the department if the necessary required documentation
for
certification is received within 90
calendar days after the
request
is made. date the application
is received. In allocating
available funding for medical subsidies, the department shall not
give preferential treatment to requests that are made before the
confirmation
of an adoption is finalized, but shall allocate funds
based on a child's need for the subsidy.
(5) (4)
Payment of a medical subsidy for
treatment of a mental
or emotional condition is limited to outpatient treatment unless 1
or more of the following apply:
(a) Certification for the medical subsidy was made before the
date
the adoption confirmation date.was finalized.
(b) The adoptee was placed in foster care by the court
pursuant
to section 18(1)(d) or (e) of chapter XIIA of Act No. 288
of
the Public Acts of 1939, being section 712A.18 of the Michigan
Compiled
Laws, before the petition for
adoption was filed.
(c)
The adoptee was certified for a support subsidy.adoption
assistance.
Sec.
115i. (1) If adoption assistance support is to be paid,
the
department and the adoptive parent or parents shall enter into
an
adoption assistance support
agreement covering that includes all
of the following:
(a)
The duration of the adoption assistance support to be
paid.
(b) A deferred determination of care agreement, if applicable.
(c) (b)
The amount to be paid and, if
appropriate, eligibility
for medical assistance.
(d) (c)
Conditions for continued payment of
the adoption
assistance
support as established by statute.
(e) (d)
Any services and other assistance
to be provided under
the
adoption assistance support
agreement.
(f) (e)
Provisions to protect the interests
of the child in
cases
in which the adoptive parent or adoptive parents move moves
to
another state while the adoption assistance support agreement
is
in effect.
(2) If medical subsidy eligibility is certified, the
department and the adoptive parent shall enter into a medical
subsidy agreement covering all of the following:
(a) Identification of the physical, mental, or emotional
condition covered by the medical subsidy.
(b) The duration of the medical subsidy agreement.
(c) Conditions for continued eligibility for the medical
subsidy as established by statute.
(3) The department shall give a copy of the adoption
assistance
support agreement, or the
medical subsidy agreement, or
both
, to the adoptive parent. or parents.
(4) Unless the medical condition of the adoptee no longer
exists, or an event described in section 115j has occurred, as
indicated in a report filed under subsection (6) or as otherwise
determined by the department, the department shall not modify or
discontinue a medical subsidy.
(5)
An adoption assistance support
agreement or medical
subsidy agreement does not affect the legal status of the adoptee
or
the legal rights and responsibilities of the adoptive parent. or
parents.
(6)
The adoptive parent or parents shall file a report with
the department at least once each year as to the location of the
adoptee and other matters relating to the continuing eligibility of
the
adoptee for adoption assistance support
or a medical subsidy,
or both.
Sec. 115j. (1) Except as provided in subsections (2) to (4),
adoption
assistance or support, a medical subsidy, or both , shall
continue until 1 of the following occurs:
(a) The adoptee becomes 18 years of age.
(b) The adoptee is emancipated.
(c) The adoptee dies.
(d) The adoption is terminated.
(e) A determination of ineligibility is made by the
department.
(2) If sufficient funds are appropriated by the legislature in
the
department's annual budget, adoption support subsidy assistance
agreements, or adoption
medical subsidy agreements, or both, may be
extended through state funding for an adoptee under 21 years of age
if all of the following criteria are met:
(a) The adoptee has not completed high school or a GED
program.
(b) The adoptee is regularly attending high school or a GED
program or a program for children with disabilities on a full-time
basis and is progressing toward achieving a high school diploma,
certificate of completion, or GED.
(c) The adoptee is not eligible for supplemental security
income.
(3)
Adoption support subsidy assistance
agreements may be
extended through title IV-E funding for an eligible adoptee up to
the age of 21 years if the department determines that the child has
a mental or physical disability that warrants continuation of
adoption assistance and the child was adopted before 16 years of
age.
(4)
Adoption support subsidy assistance
agreements may be
extended for a child adopted on or after his or her sixteenth
birthday if the department determines that the eligible adoptee
meets the requirements set forth in the young adult voluntary
foster care act, 2011 PA 225, MCL 400.641 to 400.671.
(5) Adoption assistance and a medical subsidy shall continue
even if the adoptive parent or the adoptee leaves the state.
(6)
An adoption support subsidy Adoption
assistance shall
continue during a period in which the adoptee is removed for
delinquency from his or her home as a temporary court ward based on
proceedings under section 2(a) of chapter XIIA of the probate code
of 1939, 1939 PA 288, MCL 712A.2.
(7) Upon the death of the adoptive parent, the department
shall
continue making support subsidy adoption
assistance payments
or
continue medical subsidy eligibility, or both, through state
funding to the guardian of the adoptee if a guardian is appointed
as provided in section 5202 or 5204 of the estates and protected
individuals code, 1998 PA 386, MCL 700.5202 and 700.5204.
Sec. 115l. (1) The department shall enter into an agreement
with
the adoptive parent or parents of a child with special needs
under this section for the payment of nonrecurring adoption
expenses
incurred by or on behalf of the adoptive parent. or
parents.
The agreement may be a separate
document or part of an
adoption
assistance support agreement under section 115i. The
agreement under this section shall indicate the nature and amount
of nonrecurring adoption expenses to be paid by the department,
which shall not exceed $2,000.00 for each adoptive placement
meeting the requirements of this section. The department shall make
payment as provided in the agreement.
(2) An agreement under this section shall be signed at or
before entry of an order of adoption under the adoption code.
Claims for payment shall be filed with the department within 2
years after entry of the order of adoption.
(3) The department shall take all actions necessary and
appropriate to notify potential claimants under this section,
including compliance with federal regulations.
Sec. 115m. (1) The department shall prepare and distribute to
adoption
facilitators and other interested persons a pamphlet
information describing the adoption process and the adoption
assistance and medical subsidy programs established under sections
115f
to 115s. The state department shall provide a copy of the
pamphlet
information to each prospective adoptive parent before
placing a child with that parent.
(2) The description of the adoption process required under
subsection (1) shall include at least all of the following:
(a) The steps that must be taken under the adoption code to
complete an adoption, and a description of all of the options
available during the process.
(b) A description of the services that are typically available
from each type of adoption facilitator.
(c) Recommended questions for a biological parent or
prospective adoptive parent to ask an adoption facilitator before
engaging that adoption facilitator's services.
(d) A list of the rights and responsibilities of biological
parents and prospective adoptive parents.
(e) A description of the information services available to
biological and prospective adoptive parents including, but not
limited to, all of the following:
(i) The registry of adoptive homes established and maintained
by the department under section 8 of the foster care and adoption
services act, 1994 PA 203, MCL 722.958.
(ii) The directory of children that is produced under section 8
of the foster care and adoption services act, 1994 PA 203, MCL
722.958.
(iii) The public information forms maintained by the department
pursuant
according to section 14d of 1973 PA 116, MCL 722.124d.
(f) A statement about the existence of the children's
ombudsman and its authority as an investigative body.
(g) A statement about the importance and availability of
counseling for all parties to an adoption and that a prospective
adoptive parent must pay for counseling for a birth parent or
guardian unless the birth parent or guardian waives the counseling.
Sec.
115r. (1) Sections 115r and This
section and section 115s
shall be known and may be cited as the "interstate compact on
adoption and medical assistance".
(2)
By the enactment of sections 115r and this section and
section 115s, this state becomes a party state.
(3)
Sections 115r and This
section and section 115s shall be
liberally construed to accomplish all of the following:
(a) Strengthen protections for each adoptee who is a child
with special needs on behalf of whom a party state commits to pay
adoption
assistance support when that child's residence state is a
state other than the state committed to provide the adoption
assistance.support.
(b) Provide substantive assurances and operating procedures
that promote the delivery of medical assistance and other services
to a child on an interstate basis through medical assistance
programs established by the laws of each state that is a party to
the compact.
Sec.
115s. (1) The family independence agency department is
authorized to negotiate and enter into interstate compacts with
agencies
of other states for the provision of adoption assistance
support for an adoptee who is a child with special needs, who moves
into or out of this state, and on behalf of whom adoption
assistance is being provided by this state or another state party
to such a compact.
(2) When a compact is so entered into and for as long as it
remains in force, the compact has the force and effect of law.
(3) A compact authorized under this act must include:
(a) A provision making it available for joinder by all states.
(b) A provision or provisions for withdrawal from the compact
upon written notice to the parties, but with a period of 1 year
between the date of the notice and effective date of the
withdrawal.
(c) A requirement that the protections under the compact
continue
in force for the duration of the adoption assistance
support and are applicable to all children and their adoptive
parents who on the effective date of the withdrawal are receiving
adoption
assistance support from a party state other than the one
in which they are resident and have their principal place of abode.
(d)
A requirement that each instance of adoption assistance
support to which the compact applies be covered by an adoption
assistance
support agreement in writing between the adoptive
parents and the state child welfare agency of the state that
undertakes
to provide the adoption assistance. support. An
agreement required by this subdivision shall be expressly for the
benefit of the adopted child and be enforceable by the adoptive
parents and the state agency providing the adoption
assistance.support.
(e) Other provisions as may be appropriate to implement the
proper administration of the compact.