THE House Committee on Health and Welfare chaired by Rep. Tina Sablan on Monday adopted the committee report recommending the passage of House Bill 22-15, which proposes to create foster care sponsorship program in the CNMI.
Authored by Rep. Joseph Leepan Guerrero, H.B. 22-15 would establish the program under the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs-Division of Youth Services.
The bill proposes that DYS will provide additional social and other services, financial support and supplies necessary for the care and welfare of the children — 17 years or younger — under the direct care and supervision of DCCA-DYS Child Protective Services.
DYS Director Vivian Sablan, who attended a House health committee meeting to discuss the bill, said in an interview that it is important to create the program because “it will provide additional support not only financially but more importantly, it is [also] going to involve the community to help bring in resources.”
She said DYS used to receive $90,000 annually in local appropriation, “but that kind of went away.”
Today, she said, DYS receives Victims of Crime Act funding from the Criminal Justice Planning Agency to pay foster parents with monthly stipends.
But Sablan said $400 a month is not enough to meet the needs of a child. With the enactment of H.B. 22-15, she said, “we can have additional support.”
The bill authorizes the foster care sponsorship program to “accept and use a variety of funds and resources, including but not limited to legislative appropriation, DCCA funding, federal grants, CNMI grants, community donations, private and volunteer resources, in-kind, community investments, and others to provide basic necessities and additional social and other services, financial support and supplies necessary for the care and welfare of the foster children.”
Leepan Guerrero
