SB 27-FOSTER CARE AGE LIMIT/TUITION WAIVER  2:25:32 PM CHAIR DAVIS announced consideration of SB 27. [CSSB 27, version E was before the committee having been adopted at the 3/11/09 hearing.] TOM OBERMEYER, staff to Senator Davis, said this bill provides waivers of tuition and fees combined with other assistance to help foster or out-of-home care children to enjoy the opportunity and benefits of higher education afforded to others. The University of Alaska (UA) has increased from 5 to 10 students statewide who were in foster care for tuition waivers, but that isn't nearly enough. This bill attempts to provide many more foster kids to go to college, it extends a court order age to 21 for a child committed to the custody of the department, it significantly changes "foster care" to "out-of-home care" for purposes of a transition to an independent living program, and adds a monetary stipend for children in the transition program for a specified period of time up to one year. In the past these youth who "aged out" of foster care were given financial assistance for housing up to two months. At ease from 2:27 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. 2:30:51 PM MIKE LESSMAN, Manager, Community Relations and Legislative Contact, Office of Children's Services (OCS), Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), said there are three fiscal notes, because three components of the OCS budget would be impacted. First, this extends the age a child can be in state custody to 21; so the department would be paying for an additional year for some youth. Another financial impact is found in Section 12, the provision that provides for monetary living expense stipend. And third, the state automated child welfare system, ORCA, would require programming changes to accommodate age changes. CHAIR DAVIS said he might want to just run through the fiscal notes. 2:34:46 PM MR. LESSMAN explained that this is new territory for the OCS, and these figures are basically their best guess. SENATOR DYSON asked if he could say what the department's position is. MR. LESSMAN replied that the department is neutral. SENATOR DYSON asked if he is correct that the cost would be about $2.5 million per year. MR. LESSMAN replied that in FY2010 the monetary stipend portion alone is about $5 million. The foster care age increase to 21 is about $725,000. 2:37:10 PM CHAIR DAVIS said this is a positive way to spend the state's money. The fiscal note represents all of the children who could conceivably be served, but not all will take advantage of this program. She noted that she heard no objections other than monetary. MR. LESSMAN explained that the premise behind the department's neutral position is a simple matter of priorities. He said OCS recently got its results of the federal review that said they really need to concentrate on timeliness of investigations, keeping children in their homes if it is safe to do so, and doing more home visits. Families need to be reunified more quickly and safely. So their priorities are on the front end of the system. 2:40:02 PM SENATOR DYSON said he'd like to see a copy of the audit results. MR. LESSMAN said it is on the OCS web site. SENATOR PASKVAN moved to report CS for SB 27 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, CSSB 27(HSS) moved from committee.