A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to enhance the permanency innovation initiative and appropriate funds for that purpose.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 131D‑10.9B(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	There is created the Permanency Innovation Initiative Fund that will support a demonstration project with services provided by Children's Home Society of North Carolina to (i) improve permanency outcomes for children living in foster care through reunification with parents, providing placement or guardianship with other relatives, or adoption, (ii) improve engagement with biological relatives of children in or at risk of entering foster care, and (iii) reduce costs associated with maintaining children in foster care. In implementing these goals, the Permanency Innovation Initiative Fund shall support the following strategies:
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(3)	Permanency Training Services, which are services delivered by Children's Home Society of North Carolina to support county departments of social services to implement the permanency strategies under subdivision (2) of this subsection, advance permanency‑focused services for children in the legal custody of county departments of social services, and provide training and support services to caregivers and family members who are supporting the permanency goal of children in the legal custody of county departments of social services."
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services, the sum of two million two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($2,250,000) recurring for each year of the 2019‑2021 fiscal biennium to provide additional funds for the Permanency Innovation Initiative Fund in accordance with G.S. 131D‑10.9B. Funds provided pursuant to this section shall be supplemented, not supplanted, by all available federal matching funds.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2019.