Report Title:

Transitional Service Allowance for Foster Youth; Eligibility

Description:

Changes eligibility requirements to receive higher education board allowances for foster children attending college from a maximum age requirement (less than age 22) to a maximum time period (5½ years). Prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for the allowance if the former foster child is 21 years old or older.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2166

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to the education of Foster youth.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 346-17.4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) Eligible former foster youths shall be eligible for higher education board allowances after reaching the age of majority and the higher education board payments for that former foster youth shall be paid to an accredited institution of higher learning, another intermediary contracted by the department, or to the former foster youth's former foster parents, as appropriate, provided that[:] the youth applies for the allowance before age twenty-two and:

(1) [The former foster youth is twenty-one years old or younger; and] Eligibility to receive an allowance under this section shall not exceed five and one-half years from the date the former foster youth began receiving an allowance under this section;

(2) [Within one school year after high school completion, the] The former foster youth is attending or has been accepted to attend an accredited institution of higher learning on a full-time basis, or on a part-time basis for the first academic year, if approved by the director upon such terms and conditions as the director deems appropriate[.]; and

(3) Any allowance authorized under this section by the department for a former foster youth who is twenty-one years of age or older shall not be funded by federal funds."

SECTION 2. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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