1. A. This section and Section 3230 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes shall be known and may be cited as the "Independent Living Act".

2. B. The purpose of the Independent Living Act shall be:

   1. 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 those individuals to become self reliant and productive citizens through the provision of requisite services that include, but are not limited to, transitional planning, housing, medical coverage, and education; and
   2. 2. To break the cycle of abuse and neglect that obligates the state to assume custody of children.
3. 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 or a federally recognized Indian tribe 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.
4. D. Individuals who are eligible for services pursuant to the Independent Living Act and who are between eighteen (18) and twenty-one (21) years of age shall be eligible for Medicaid coverage, provided such individuals were also in the custody of the Department or a federally recognized Indian tribe on the date they reached eighteen (18) years of age.

Laws 2000, HB 2452, c. 374, § 38, emerg. eff. July 1, 2000; Amended by Laws 2001, HB 1298, c. 415, § 3, emerg. eff. June 5, 2001 (superseded document available); Amended by Laws 2009, HB 2028, c. 233, § 63, emerg. eff. May 21, 2009 (superseded document available); Renumbered from 10 O.S. § 7004-1.6 by Laws 2009, HB 2028, c. 233, § 299, emerg. eff. May 21, 2009.