GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1995

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 292

Short Title:  Child Center Funds.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Representatives Easterling, Wright; Adams, Barnes, Beall, Earle, Ives, Luebke, McLaughlin, Rogers, Sutton, and Yongue.

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Referred to:  Appropriations.

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February 23, 1995

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT RECOMMENDED BY THE CHILD FATALITY TASK FORCE TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR TEN CHILD MALTREATMENT RESOURCE CENTERS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Division of Social Services, Department of Human Resources, the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000) for the 1995-96 fiscal year and the sum of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) for the 1996-97 fiscal year for ten Child Maltreatment Resource Centers.  
Of these funds, two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) for the 1995-96 fiscal year are nonrecurring, start-up funds that will provide grants of up to twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) per center for educational materials, video-taping equipment, photography equipment, medical instruments, and other one-time supplies.
The Division of Social Services shall allocate the six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) of operating funds each fiscal year to each center based on a productivity formula.  No center shall receive more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in any one fiscal year.  The Director of the Division of Social Services, in cooperation with the Director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, the State Health Director, the Attorney General, the President of the North Carolina Pediatric Society, and the President of the North Carolina Association of County Directors of Social Services, shall develop the proposal applications, the grants review process, and the productivity formula.
The Child Maltreatment Resource Centers established and funded by this section shall:
(1)	Offer support, education, and training for medical and mental health providers, social workers, lawyers, law enforcement officers, and other involved professionals in their catchment area;
(2)	Develop and maintain uniform and consistent standards of evaluation for physical, sexual, and emotional abuse;
(3)	Create a system that is coherent, effective, and fair to the child and family in resolving issues of child maltreatment;
(4)	Decrease the amount of time each child must wait for an appointment and provide maltreatment evaluations near to the child's home; and
(5)	Eliminate duplicative or unnecessary interviews to minimize further trauma to the child.
Sec. 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1995.