§ 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.