A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to expand the child welfare postsecondary support program (nc reach) by lowering the age of eligibility for special needs children adopted from foster care and to appropriate funds for that purpose.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Beginning in the 2017‑2018 academic year, the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services, shall expand the child welfare postsecondary support program (NC REACH), which is a program that provides assistance with the "cost of attendance" as that term is defined in 20 U.S.C. § 108711 for the education needs of certain foster care youth, by lowering the eligibility age for special needs children adopted from foster care from 12 years of age to eight years of age.
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services, the sum of one million three hundred thousand dollars ($1,300,000) for the 2017‑2018 fiscal year and the sum of one million three hundred thousand dollars ($1,300,000) for the 2018‑2019 fiscal year to implement the provisions of this act.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2017.