SENATE BILL 410

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2006

INTRODUCED BY

James G. Taylor

AN ACT

RELATING TO FOSTER CHILDREN; DIRECTING THE CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES DEPARTMENT TO DESIGNATE A LIAISON FOR TRANSITIONAL FOSTER CARE CHILDREN AGES EIGHTEEN TO TWENTY-ONE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES DEPARTMENT LIAISON.--The children, youth and families department shall appoint a half-time liaison for foster services to focus on social, housing, employment and educational needs of children ages eighteen to twenty-one who have been in state foster care and to ensure that related agency staff are available for transition planning.

     Section 2. COORDINATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES.--The liaison for foster services of the children, youth and families department shall:

          A. serve on the youth transition task force of the department;

          B. convene individualized transition planning meetings for foster care children ages eighteen to twenty-one who are still entitled to educational services, and their foster parents, and issue invitations to such meetings to appropriate staff from other agencies, including the public education department, universities, local school districts, the office of workforce training and development or labor department and the vocational rehabilitation division of the public education department; and

          C. make recommendations to departments, agencies and the legislative welfare reform oversight committee on strategies to properly fund programs and provide guidance for children ages eighteen to twenty-one who have been in foster care.

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