A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to establish a model foster homes assistance program to provide for the placement of indian children in indian foster homes in order to preserve cultural identity.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services the sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) for the 2006‑2007 fiscal year to establish a model Foster Homes Assistance Program in the four‑county area serving the Lumbee Tribe to improve the chances that Indian children who become wards of the State are placed in Indian foster homes as a means of preserving the children's cultural identity. The funds shall be used to staff an Office of Tribal Child Protective Services within the Tribal Administration Branch to work with and screen potential foster parents.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2006.