- A. This section and Section 39 of this act shall be known and may be cited as the “Independent Living Act”.
B. The purpose of the Independent Living Act shall be:
- 1. To ensure that eligible individuals who have been or are in the foster care program of the Department of Human Services due to abuse or neglect receive the protection and support necessary to allow the individuals to become self reliant and productive citizens through the provision requisite services that include, but are not limited to, housing, medical coverage and education; and
- 2. To break the cycle of abuse and neglect that obligates the state to assume custody of children.
- C. Individuals eligible for services pursuant to the Independent Living Act include any individual up to twenty-one (21) years of age who has been in the custody of the Department of Human Services due to abuse or neglect for any nine (9) of the twenty-four (24) months after the individual’s sixteenth birthday and before the individual’s eighteenth birthday.
Laws 2000, HB 2452, c. 374, § 38, emerg. eff. July 1, 2000.