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An Act To Ensure Adequate Child Protective Services throughout the State
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §4003, sub-§4, as amended by PL 1999, c. 731, Pt. AA, §4, is further amended to read:
 
4. Permanent plans for care and custody.   Promote the early establishment of permanent plans for the care and custody of children who cannot be returned to their family. It is the intent of the Legislature that the department reduce the number of children receiving assistance under the United States Social Security Act, Title IV-E, who have been in foster care more than 24 months, by 10% each year beginning with the federal fiscal year that starts on October 1, 1983; and
Sec. 2. 22 MRSA §4003, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 1999, c. 731, Pt. AA, §5, is amended to read:
 
5. Report.   Require the department to report monthly to the joint standing committees of the Legislature having jurisdiction over appropriations and financial affairs and health and human services matters, beginning in July 2000, on the status of children served by the Bureau of Child and Family Services. The report must include, at a minimum, information on the department's caseload, the location of the children in the department's custody and the number of cases of abuse and neglect that were not opened for assessment. This information must be identified by program and funding source.; and
Sec. 3.  22 MRSA §4003, sub-§6  is enacted to read:
 
6.  Office in each county.     Require the department to establish in each county at least one office with appropriate staff to provide services under this chapter. For purposes of this subsection, "office" does not include an office contained in or attached to a motor vehicle or otherwise designed to be mobile.
 
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish in each county of the State at least one office with appropriate staff to provide child protective services.