INTERSTATE ADOPTION COMPACT - S.B. 1505: FLOOR ANALYSIS



Senate Bill 1505 (as enrolled)

Sponsor: Senator Bev Hammerstrom

Committee: Families, Mental Health and Human Services


CONTENT


The bill would create the "Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance" within the Social Welfare Act. The bill's enactment would make Michigan a party state to the Interstate Compact. The Compact would have to be liberally construed to 1) strengthen protections for each adoptee who was a child with special needs on whose behalf a party state would commit to pay adoption assistance when the child's state of residence was not the state committed to provide adoption assistance, and 2) provide substantive assurances and operating procedures that promoted the delivery of medical assistance and other services to a child on an interstate basis through medical assistance programs established by the laws of each state that was a party to the Compact. ("Adoption assistance" would mean a support subsidy and/or medical assistance.)


The bill would authorize the Family Independence Agency (FIA) to negotiate and enter into interstate compacts with agencies of other states for the provision of adoption assistance for an adoptee who was a child with special needs, who moved into or out of Michigan, and on whose behalf adoption assistance was provided by the State or another state that was a party to such a compact. A compact entered into under this provision would have to include a provision making it available for joinder by all states; a provision or provisions for withdrawal from the compact upon written notice, but with a period of one year between the notice and the withdrawal; a requirement that the protections under the compact would continue in force for the duration of the adoption assistance and apply to all children and their adoptive parents who, on the effective date of the withdrawal, were receiving adoption assistance from a party state other than the one in which they resided; a requirement that each instance of adoption assistance to which the compact applied be covered by a written adoption assistance agreement between the adoptive parent and the child welfare agency of the state that undertook to provide the adoption assistance; and other provisions appropriate to implement the proper administration of the compact.


The bill also would revise the conditions under which the FIA may pay a support subsidy to an adoptive parent of a child who is placed with the adoptive parent under the laws of another state.


MCL 400.115f et al. - Legislative Analyst: Patrick Affholter


FISCAL IMPACT


The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on State government. The cost to a state to join the Interstate Compact is a total of $3,000 per year. In addition, some service and administrative costs may increase; however, a state may save some of the adoption service costs for placements made across states through the reciprocity agreement.


Date Completed: 12-3-02 - Fiscal Analyst: Constance ColeFloor\sb1505 - Bill Analysis @ www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.