Senate Bill No. 724
(By Senators Wooton, Craigo, Jackson,
Walker, White, Buckalew and Scott)
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[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section thirty-one, article seven,
chapter forty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
providing that moneys deposited in the child assessment and
in-state placement fund and certain line item appropriations
are to be used to implement the provisions relating to the
child placement alternatives corporation.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty-one, article seven, chapter forty-nine
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty- one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§49-7-31. Special account.
(a) There is hereby established a special account in the
department of health and human resources in the state treasury to be known as the "Child Assessment and In-state Placement Fund."
Any funds provided for the purposes of this article implementing
the provisions of article ten of this chapter by line-item
appropriation of the Legislature in any fiscal year shall be
deposited in the special account and used to carry out the
purposes of this said article ten. Balances remaining in the
special account at the end of the fiscal year shall not expire or
revert to the general revenue: Provided, That balances remaining
in the account may be redesignated for other purposes by
appropriation of the Legislature. The secretary of the
department of health and human resources may order the transfer
of moneys in the special account to other accounts within the
department of health and human resources, to the limited extent
that children who are the subject of this article are financially
and medically eligible for other programs or services of the
division of health and human resources, including programs
funded, in whole or in part, by federal funds.
(b) Any moneys saved by the department of health and human
resources by virtue of returning children from out-of-state
placements after implementing the structured risk assessment and
classification system provided for in section four, article nine
ten of this chapter shall be deposited in the child assessment
and in-state placement fund and used solely for the purpose of developing and implementing programs that will reduce the numbers
of children in long-term placements outside of their homes.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that moneys
appropriated for the purposes of implementing the article
relating to the Child Placement Alternatives Corporation are to
be deposited into the Child Assessment and In-state Placement
Fund for use in implementing the provisions of the article
relating to the Child Placement Alternatives Corporation.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
This bill is recommended for passage in the 1998 regular
legislative session by the Legislative Task Force on Juvenile
Foster Care, Detention and Placement.