SENATE BILL 214

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Mary Jane M. Garcia

AN ACT

RELATING TO CHILDREN; ALLOWING A CHILD WHO HAS BEEN IN FOSTER CARE TO DELAY LEAVING THE CARE OF THE STATE UNTIL THE CHILD RECEIVES A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA.

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

     SECTION 1. OPTION TO REMAIN IN THE CARE OF THE STATE.--The children, youth and families department shall notify a child who is in foster care and is attending high school at the age of seventeen of the option to remain in the care of the state after the child attains the age of eighteen until the child graduates from high school. When a child who is in foster care and is attending high school elects to remain in the care of the state after attaining the age of eighteen, the department shall provide services, housing, education and medical care to the same degree that it did prior to the child's eighteenth birthday and until the child receives a high school diploma or until the child reaches the age of twenty-one, whichever comes first.

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