80R5920 KLA-D
 
  By: Uresti S.B. No. 872
 
 
 
   
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the maximum amount of a monthly subsidy that may be paid
under adoption assistance agreements for certain children with
special needs.
       BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
       SECTION 1.  Section 162.304, Family Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (g) to read as follows:
       (g)  The executive commissioner of the Health and Human
Services Commission shall adopt rules providing that the maximum
amount of the subsidy under Subsection (b) that may be paid to an
adoptive parent of a child under an adoption assistance agreement
is an amount that is equal to the amount of the foster care payment
that would be provided for the child, based on the child's foster
care service level on the date the department and the adoptive
parent enter into the adoption assistance agreement, if the child
remained in foster care on that date. This subsection applies only
to a monthly subsidy paid under the adoption assistance agreement 
for a child:
             (1)  whose adoptive parent under the adoption
assistance agreement had been the child's foster parent; and
             (2)  for whom the department, for a period of at least
18 months before entering into the adoption assistance agreement,
exercised due diligence in attempting to locate an appropriate
adoptive placement, but was unable to locate an  appropriate
adoptive placement other than with the child's foster parent
described in Subdivision (1).
       SECTION 2.  Section 162.304(g), Family Code, as added by
this Act, applies only to an adoption assistance agreement that is
entered into on or after the effective date of this Act. An
adoption assistance agreement that was entered into before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the agreement was entered into, and the former law is continued
in effect for that purpose.
       SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.