HBA-MPM H.B. 1921 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1921
By: Maxey
Human Services
3/4/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

The Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (PRS) provides
adoption assistance to the adoptive parents of children who are adopted
after having been in the conservatorship of Child Protective Services.
This assistance includes Medicaid and a monthly adoption subsidy for the
adoptive parents of children meeting special needs criteria.  A child with
special needs is one for whom the state has terminated the parental rights
of a child's biological parents due to abuse or neglect and who, at the
time of adoptive placement, is at least six years old, is two years old or
older and a member of certain minority groups, is being adopted as part of
a group of siblings, or has a verifiable physical, mental, or emotional
handicap. These children often have needs that exceed those of children in
other adoptive situations.  These children and their adoptive families need
continued adoption assistance to ensure that the child remains in school
and the child's needs are met. 

Current law authorizes PRS to pay foster care assistance for certain
children after the child becomes 18 years of age.  However, adoptive
assistance ends once a child turns 18. House Bill 1921 requires PRS to
extend adoption assistance for children with special needs. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1921 amends the Family Code to require the Department of
Protective and Regulatory Services (PRS) to continue providing adoption
assistance to adoptive parents of a child with special needs after a
child's 18th birthday under an adoption assistance agreement between the
adoptive parents and PRS.  If the child has a mental or physical disability
that warrants the continuation of assistance, PRS is required to provide
assistance until the child's 21st birthday as provided by federal law.  If
the child does not have a disability that warrants continuation until age
21, PRS is required to provide assistance, funded solely with state money,
until the earlier of: 

_the date the child ceases to attend school regularly;

_the date the child obtains a high school diploma or high school
equivalency certificate; 

_the date the child's adoptive parents are no longer responsible for the
child's support; or  

_the child's 19th birthday.

The bill provides that if the legislature does not appropriate sufficient
money to provide assistance to all adoptive parents, PRS is required to
provide assistance only to the adoptive parents of the children whose
mental or physical disability warrants it until age 21. 

 EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.