N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law § 7.37-a: Transitional care

§ 7.37-a Transitional care.

(a) For purposes of this section, "transitional care" shall mean care

and maintenance of persons:

1. who were placed in foster care by a social services district

pursuant to article six of the social services law and who have become

twenty-one years of age, or who were placed in a residential educational

placement by a school district pursuant to article eighty-nine of the

education law and who are no longer eligible for free educational

services because they have completed the school year in which they

became twenty-one;

2. who were disabled and in need of residential care prior to becoming

age twenty-one or prior to becoming ineligible for free education

services and who have since remained continuously disabled and

continuously in need of residential care;

3. who became twenty-one or became ineligible for free educational

services prior to July first, nineteen hundred ninety-six;

4. with respect to whom the office has approved a plan of continued

out of home care for the person but has not yet identified a currently

available appropriate placement;

5. whose residential needs can be met by the facility in which the

persons resided prior to becoming age twenty-one or becoming ineligible

for free educational services; and

6. who on July first, nineteen hundred ninety-eight are in receipt of

transitional care, or who have continuously remained in the foster care

or residential education placement where they had received transitional

care.

(b) The office shall expend funds to provide transitional care as

described in this section.

(c) Expenditures pursuant to subdivision (b) of this section shall be

approved only if and to the extent that:

1. the office has an agreement with the residential facility for

continued care of qualified persons at rates which are no greater than

the rates that would have been available if such persons were under age

twenty-one;

2. the facility understands and agrees to the right of the office and

such other state offices as the office may deem appropriate to visit and

inspect the facilities and residents and to have access to any records

or information necessary to assure that the care provided is safe and

appropriate to the needs of any persons residing in the facility for

whom transitional care is being provided;

3. the payments are made subject to any other requirements identified

by the office; and

4. an application for supplemental security income benefits has been

submitted, and any supplemental security income benefits received by the

person, in excess of any reserved personal allowance amounts, shall be

applied to reduce the cost of transitional care.

(d) The office shall periodically forward to each facility that is

providing transitional care a statement of the obligations the facility

assumes by accepting payment pursuant to this section. The statement of

obligations shall be established by the office and provided to each

facility.

(e) The office shall discontinue payment for transitional care, in

accordance with procedures established by the office, for any

individual:

1. who has been offered an appropriate, available adult placement or

adult services, when such an offer has been made and accepted, or has

been made and upheld by an administrative hearing, or has been made and

the time to request an administrative appeal has expired;

2. whose continued placement in a child care facility or residential

school may adversely affect the health, safety or welfare of children

residing in the facility, based upon a determination by the education

department, or by the department of social services, and that the office

will, if necessary and appropriate, offer an adult placement to the

individual on an expedited basis; or

3. who is residing in a facility which has failed or refused to meet

its obligations pursuant to this section as a condition of funding, and

that the office will, if necessary and appropriate, offer an adult

placement to the individual on an expedited basis.