A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH COMMISSION'S STUDY COMMITTEE ON GROUP HOMES TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF LOCAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS IN WHICH GROUP HOMES FOR CHILDREN ARE LOCATED.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  Section 21.60(g) of S.L. 2001‑424 reads as rewritten:
"SECTION 21.60.(g)  The Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Department of Public Instruction, and other affected agencies, shall report on the following Program information:
(1)	The number and other demographic information of children served.
(2)	The amount and source of funds expended to implement the Program.
(3)	Information regarding the number of children screened, specific placement of children including the placement of children in programs or facilities outside of the child's home county, and treatment needs of children served.
(4)	The average length of stay in residential treatment, transition, and return to home.
(5)	The number of children diverted from institutions or other out‑of‑home placements such as training schools and State psychiatric hospitals and a description of the services provided.
(6)	Recommendations on other areas of the Program that need to be improved.
(7)	Other information relevant to successful implementation of the Program.
(8)	A method of identifying and tracking children placed outside of the family unit in group homes or therapeutic foster care home settings."
SECTION 1.(b)  The Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Department of Public Instruction, and other affected agencies, shall submit a report on April 1, 2003, on the method of identifying and tracking children placed outside of the family unit in group homes or therapeutic foster care home settings to the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services, and the Fiscal Research Division.
SECTION 2.  G.S. 115C‑140.1(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	Notwithstanding the provisions of any other statute and without regard for the place of domicile of a parent or guardian, the cost of a free appropriate public education for a child with special needs who is placed in or assigned to a group home, foster home or other similar facility, pursuant to State and federal law, shall be borne by the local board of education in which the group home, foster home or other similar facility is located. However, the local school administrative unit in which a child is domiciled shall transfer to the local school administrative unit in which the institution is located an amount equal to the actual local cost in excess of State and federal funding required to educate that child in the local school administrative unit for the fiscal year. Nothing in this section obligates any local board of education to bear any cost for the care and maintenance of a child with special needs in a group home, foster home or other similar facility."
SECTION 3.  The State Board of Education shall revise the formula for State Aid for Children with Disabilities and the Group Homes formula to provide to local school administrative units an amount greater than the State per funded headcount for children with special needs placed outside their home counties in counties where there is higher than average concentration of group homes or therapeutic foster care homes serving children in the county.
SECTION 4.  No additional group homes shall be approved, opened, licensed, or built in any county where the number of residential treatment homes and supervised living homes for individuals of all disability groups beds exceeds 1 per 733 people, according to the most recent federal decennial census.  This section shall not apply to group homes that have a contract for services with an area mental health program or a local management entity.
SECTION 5.  The State Board of Education shall provide for a local school administrative unit to request funds from the Group Homes Program for Children with Disabilities if a child assigned to that unit was not in that unit's April headcount for exceptional children for the previous school year, even if the local school administrative unit received Group Homes Program funds for that child for a portion of the preceding school year.
SECTION 6.  This act becomes effective January 1, 2003.