4133478 Resolution 19-716, "Grandparent Caregivers Program Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2012"

A RESOLUTION

                                                        

19-716  

 

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

December 4, 2012

 

To declare the existence of an emergency with the respect to the need to amend the Grandparent Caregivers Pilot Program Establishment Act of 2005 to allow waivers of certain eligibility requirements when a child is at risk of removal from his or her home.

 

 

            RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Grandparent Caregivers Program Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2012”.

 

            Sec. 2.  (a)  There exists an immediate need to allow the Mayor to waive certain eligibility requirements for at-risk children to be placed with grandparents.

            (b)  Current law prevents the Child and Family Services Agency (“CFSA”) from placing a child, who is in imminent risk of being removed from his or her home due to abuse or neglect, with a willing grandparent and providing that grandparent with a subsidy to care for the child unless the grandparent has been the child’s primary caregiver and the child has resided with the grandparent for the previous 6 months. 

(c)  Emergency legislation is necessary to enable CFSA to immediately waive this requirement and place children who are at risk of being removed from their homes with grandparents who are willing to care for them.

 

Sec. 3.  The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Grandparent Caregivers Program Emergency Amendment Act of 2012 be adopted after a single reading.

 

Sec. 4.  This resolution shall take effect immediately.