Last Update: February 22nd, 2010
Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm hosted a Feb. 18 ceremonial bill signing event to reinforce legislation that ensures foster children will not be separated from the school they are attending and helps bring Michigan into compliance with federal adoption law.
With primary bill sponsors Reps. Mary Valentine of Muskegon and Kenneth Kurtz of Coldwater and DHS officials, Granholm signed Public Acts 196 and 197 of 2009. The two-bill package helps ensure that a foster child remains in the school he or she was attending at the time of removal from the parental home unless the child’s caseworker determines that it is in the child’s best interest to attend a new school. In response to a caseworker’s request, a school must enroll a foster child and a school district must count the child as a pupil without regard to whether the foster child resides in that school district. The school district in which the foster child is educated would not be required to obtain the consent of the child’s district of residence before counting the child as a pupil.
The bills help bring Michigan into compliance with several requirements of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 which became effective in October 2008. To review the public acts, go to the Legislative Web site and type in 5298 or 5299 in the
“bill number” space.
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