The Florida Senate

409.1451  Independent living transition services.--

(1)  SYSTEM OF SERVICES.--

(a)  The Department of Children and Family Services or its agents shall administer a system of independent living transition services to enable older children in foster care and young adults who exit foster care at age 18 to make the transition to self-sufficiency as adults.

(b)  The goals of independent living transition services are to assist older children in foster care and young adults who were formerly in foster care to obtain life skills and education for independent living and employment, to have a quality of life appropriate for their age, and to assume personal responsibility for becoming self-sufficient adults.

(c)  State funds for foster care or federal funds shall be used to establish a continuum of services for eligible children in foster care and eligible young adults who were formerly in foster care which accomplish the goals for the independent living transition services and provide the service components for services for foster children, as provided in subsection (3), and services for young adults who were formerly in foster care, as provided in subsection (5).

(d)  For children in foster care, independent living transition services are not an alternative to adoption. Independent living transition services may occur concurrently with continued efforts to locate and achieve placement in adoptive families for older children in foster care.

(2)  ELIGIBILITY.--

(a)  The department shall serve children who are 13 to 18 years of age and who are in foster care through the program component of services for foster children provided in subsection (3). Children to be served must meet the eligibility requirements set forth for specific services as provided in this section and through department rule.

(b)  The department shall serve young adults who are 18 to 23 years of age and who were in foster care when they turned 18 years of age through the program component of services for young adults who were formerly in foster care in subsection (5). Children to be served must meet the eligibility requirements set forth for specific services in this section and through department rule.

(3)  PROGRAM COMPONENT OF SERVICES FOR FOSTER CHILDREN.--The department shall provide the following transition to independence services to children in foster care who meet prescribed conditions and are determined eligible by the department. The service categories available to children in foster care which facilitate successful transition into adulthood are:

(a)  Preindependent-living services.--

1.  Preindependent-living services include, but are not limited to, life skills training, educational field trips, and conferences. The specific services to be provided to a child shall be determined using a preindependent-living assessment.

2.  A child 13 to 15 years of age who is in foster care is eligible for such services.

(b)  Life skills services.--

1.  Life skills services may include, but are not limited to, independent living skills training, educational support, employment training, and counseling. The specific services to be provided to a child shall be determined using an independent life skills assessment.

2.  A child 15 to 18 years of age who is in foster care is eligible for such services.

(c)  Subsidized independent living services.--

1.  Subsidized independent living services are living arrangements that allow the child to live independently of the daily care and supervision of an adult in a setting that is not required to be licensed under s. 409.175

2.  A child 16 to 18 years of age is eligible for such services if he or she:

a.  Is adjudicated dependent under chapter 39; has been placed in licensed out-of-home care for at least 6 months prior to entering subsidized independent living; and has a permanency goal of adoption, independent living, or long-term licensed care; and

b.  Is able to demonstrate independent living skills, as determined by the department, using established procedures and assessments.

3.  Independent living arrangements established for a child must be part of an overall plan leading to the total independence of the child from the department's supervision. The plan must include, but need not be limited to, a description of the skills of the child and a plan for learning additional identified skills; the behavior that the child has exhibited which indicates an ability to be responsible and a plan for developing additional responsibilities, as appropriate; a plan for future educational, vocational, and training skills; present financial and budgeting capabilities and a plan for improving resources and ability; a description of the proposed residence; documentation that the child understands the specific consequences of his or her conduct in the independent living program; documentation of proposed services to be provided by the department and other agencies, including the type of service and the nature and frequency of contact; and a plan for maintaining or developing relationships with the family, other adults, friends, and the community, as appropriate.

4.  Subsidy payments in an amount established by the department may be made directly to a child under the direct supervision of a caseworker or other responsible adult approved by the department.

(4)  PARTICIPATION IN LIFE SKILLS ACTIVITIES.--In order to assist older children in foster care, ages 13 to 18 years of age, with the transition to independent living as adults, the program must provide them with opportunities to participate in and learn from life skills activities in their foster families and communities which are reasonable and appropriate for their age. Such activities may include, but are not limited to, managing money earned from a job, taking driver's education, and participating in after-school or extracurricular activities. To support these opportunities for participation in age-appropriate life skills activities, the department may:

(a)  Develop, with children in the program and their foster parents, a list of age-appropriate activities and responsibilities to be presented to all children involved in independent living transition services and their foster parents.

(b)  Provide training for staff and foster parents which addresses issues of older children in foster care and the transition to adulthood, including supporting education and employment and providing opportunities to participate in appropriate daily activities.

(c)  Develop procedures to maximize the authority of foster parents to approve participation in age-appropriate activities of children in their care.

(d)  Provide opportunities for older children in foster care to interact with mentors.

(e)  Develop and implement procedures for older children to directly access and manage the personal allowance they receive from the department in order to learn responsibility and participate in age-appropriate life skills activities to the extent feasible.

(5)  PROGRAM COMPONENT OF SERVICES FOR YOUNG ADULTS FORMERLY IN FOSTER CARE.--Based on the availability of funds, the department shall provide or arrange for the following services to young adults formerly in foster care who meet the prescribed conditions and are determined eligible by the department. The categories of services available to assist a young adult formerly in foster care to achieve independence are:

(a)  Aftercare support services.--

1.  Aftercare support services include, but are not limited to, referrals to resources in the community for:

a.  Mentoring and tutoring.

b.  Mental health services and substance abuse counseling.

c.  Life skills classes, including credit management and preventive health activities.

d.  Parenting classes.

e.  Job skills training.

The specific services to be provided under this subparagraph shall be determined by an aftercare services assessment. Temporary assistance may be provided to prevent homelessness within the limitations defined by the department.

2.  A young adult 18 to 23 years of age who leaves foster care at 18 years of age but who requests services prior to reaching 23 years of age is eligible for such services.

(b)  Road-to-Independence Scholarship Program.--

1.  The Road-to-Independence Scholarship Program is intended to help eligible students who are former foster children in this state to receive the educational and vocational training needed to achieve independence. The amount of the award shall equal the earnings that the student would have been eligible to earn working a 40-hour-a-week federal minimum wage job, after considering other grants and scholarships that are in excess of the educational institutions' fees and costs, and contingent upon available funds. Students eligible for the Road-to-Independence Scholarship Program may also be eligible for educational fee waivers for workforce development postsecondary programs, community colleges, and universities, pursuant to ¹s. 1009.25(2)(c).

2.  A young adult 18 to 21 years of age is eligible for the initial award, and a young adult under 23 years of age is eligible for renewal awards, if he or she:

a.  Is a dependent child, pursuant to chapter 39, and is living in licensed foster care or in subsidized independent living at the time of his or her 18th birthday;

b.  Has spent at least 6 months living in foster care before reaching his or her 18th birthday;

c.  Is a resident of this state as defined in ²s. 1009.40; and

d.  Meets one of the following qualifications:

(I)  Has earned a standard high school diploma or its equivalent as described in ³s. 1003.425 or s. 1003.43, and has been admitted for full-time enrollment in an eligible postsecondary education institution as defined in ⁴s. 1009.533;

(II)  Is enrolled full time in an accredited high school, is within 2 years of graduation, and has maintained a grade point average of at least 2.0 on a scale of 4.0 for the two semesters preceding the date of his or her 18th birthday; or

(III)  Is enrolled full time in an accredited adult education program designed to provide the student with a high school diploma or its equivalent, is making satisfactory progress in that program as certified by the program, and is within 2 years of graduation.

3.a.  The department must advertise the availability of the program and must ensure that the children and young adults leaving foster care, foster parents, or family services counselors are informed of the availability of the program and the application procedures.

b.  A young adult must apply for the initial award during the 6 months immediately preceding his or her 18th birthday. A young adult who fails to make an initial application, but who otherwise meets the criteria for an initial award, may make one application for the initial award if such application is made before the young adult's 21st birthday.

c.  If funding for the program is available, the department shall issue awards from the scholarship program for each young adult who meets all the requirements of the program.

d.  An award shall be issued at the time the eligible student reaches 18 years of age.

e.  If the award recipient transfers from one eligible institution to another and continues to meet eligibility requirements, the award must be transferred with the recipient.

f.  Scholarship funds awarded to any eligible young adult under this program are in addition to any other services provided to the young adult by the department through its independent living transition services.

g.  The department shall provide information concerning young adults receiving the Road-to-Independence Scholarship to the Department of Education for inclusion in the student financial assistance database, as provided in ⁵s. 1009.94

h.  Scholarship funds shall be terminated when the young adult has attained a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree, or equivalent undergraduate degree, or reaches 23 years of age, whichever occurs earlier.

i.  The department shall evaluate and renew each award annually during the 90-day period before the young adult's birthday. In order to be eligible for a renewal award for the subsequent year, the young adult must:

(I)  Complete at least 12 semester hours or the equivalent in the last academic year in which the young adult earned a scholarship, except for a young adult who meets the requirements of ⁶s. 1009.41

(II)  Maintain the cumulative grade point average required by the scholarship program, except that, if the young adult's grades are insufficient to renew the scholarship at any time during the eligibility period, the young adult may restore eligibility by improving the grade point average to the required level.

j.  Scholarship funds may be terminated during the interim between an award and the evaluation for a renewal award if the department determines that the award recipient is no longer enrolled in an educational institution as defined in sub-subparagraph 2.d., or is no longer a state resident. The department shall notify a student who is terminated and inform the student of his or her right to appeal.

k.  An award recipient who does not qualify for a renewal award or who chooses not to renew the award may subsequently apply for reinstatement. An application for reinstatement must be made before the young adult reaches 23 years of age, and a student may not apply for reinstatement more than once. In order to be eligible for reinstatement, the young adult must meet the eligibility criteria and the criteria for award renewal for the scholarship program.

l.  A young adult receiving continued services of the foster care program under former s. 409.145(3) must transfer to the scholarship program by July 1, 2003.

(c)  Transitional support services.--

1.  In addition to any services provided through after care support or the Road-to-Independence Scholarship, a young adult formerly in foster care, may receive other appropriate short-term services, which may include financial, housing, counseling, employment, education and other services, if the young adult demonstrates that the services are critical to the young adult's own efforts to achieve self-sufficiency and to develop a personal support system.

2.  A young adult formerly in foster care is eligible to apply for transitional support services if he or she is 18 to 23 years of age, was a dependent child pursuant to chapter 39, was living in licensed foster care or in subsidized independent living at the time of his or her 18th birthday, and had spent at least 6 months living in foster care before that date.

3.  If at any time the services are no longer critical to the young adult's own efforts to achieve self-sufficiency and to develop a personal support system, they shall be terminated.

(d)  Payment of aftercare, scholarship, or transitional support funds.--Payment of aftercare, scholarship, or transitional support funds shall be made directly to the recipient unless the recipient requests that the payments or a portion of the payments be made directly to a licensed foster family or group care provider with whom the recipient was residing at the time of attaining the 18th birthday and with whom the recipient desires to continue to reside. If a young adult and the former foster parent agree that the young adult shall continue to live in the foster home while receiving aftercare, scholarship, or transitional support funds, the caregiver shall establish written expectations for the young adult's behavior and responsibilities. The young adult who continues with a foster family shall not be included as a child in calculating any licensing restriction on the number of children in the foster home.

(e)  Appeals process.--

1.  The Department of Children and Family Services shall adopt by rule a procedure by which a young adult may appeal an eligibility determination or the department's failure to provide aftercare, scholarship, or transitional support services if such funds are available.

2.  The procedure developed by the department must be readily available to young adults and must provide for an appeal to the Secretary of Children and Family Services. The decision of the secretary constitutes final agency action and is reviewable by the court as provided in s. 120.68

(6)  ACCOUNTABILITY.--The department shall develop outcome measures for the program and other performance measures.

(7)  INDEPENDENT LIVING SERVICES INTEGRATION WORKGROUP.--The Secretary of Children and Family Services shall establish the independent living services integration workgroup, which, at a minimum, shall include representatives from the Department of Children and Family Services, the Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Department of Education, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the State Youth Advisory Board, Workforce Florida, Inc., and foster parents. The workgroup shall assess barriers to the effective and efficient integration of services and support across systems for the transition of older children in foster care to independent living. The workgroup shall recommend methods to overcome these barriers and shall ensure that the state plan for federal funding for the independent living transition services includes these recommendations. The workgroup shall report to appropriate legislative committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives by December 31, 2002. Specific issues and recommendations to be addressed by the workgroup include:

(a)  Enacting the Medicaid provision of the federal Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, Pub. L. No. 106-169, which allows young adults formerly in foster care to receive medical coverage up to 21 years of age.

(b)  Extending the age of Medicaid coverage from 21 to 23 years of age for young adults formerly in foster care in order to enable such youth to complete a postsecondary education degree.

(c)  Encouraging the regional workforce boards to provide priority employment and support for eligible foster care participants receiving independent living transition services.

(d)  Facilitating transfers between schools when changes in foster care placements occur.

(e)  Identifying mechanisms to increase the legal authority of foster parents and staff of the department or its agent to provide for the age-appropriate care of older children in foster care, including enrolling a child in school, signing for a practice driver's license for the child under s. 322.09(4), cosigning loans and insurance for the child, signing for the child's medical treatment, and authorizing other similar activities as appropriate.

(f)  Transferring the allowance of spending money that is provided by the department each month directly to an older child in the program through an electronic benefit transfer program. The purpose of the transfer is to allow these children to access and manage the allowance they receive in order to learn responsibility and participate in age-appropriate life skills activities.

(g)  Identifying other barriers to normalcy for a child in foster care.

(8)  RULEMAKING.--The department shall adopt by rule procedures to administer this section, including provision for the proportional reduction of scholarship awards when adequate funds are not available for all applicants. The department shall engage in appropriate planning to prevent, to the extent possible, a reduction in scholarship awards after issuance.

History.--s. 3, ch. 2002-19.

¹Note.--Substituted by the editors for references to ss. 239.117(4)(c), 240.235(5)(a), and 240.35(2)(a), the predecessor provisions to s. 1009.25(2)(c).

²Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 240.404, the predecessor provision to s. 1009.40

³Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 232.246 or s. 229.814, the predecessor provisions to s. 1003.43 or s. 1003.425, respectively.

⁴Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 240.40204, the predecessor provision to s. 1009.533

⁵Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 240.40401, the predecessor provision to s. 1009.94

⁶Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 240.4041, the predecessor provision to s. 1009.41