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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, First Regular Session
juvenile dependency; state aid; appropriation
Purpose
Establishes the State Aid for Juvenile Dependency Proceedings Fund (Fund) and appropriates $2,000,000 from the state General Fund (state GF) in FY 2022 to the Fund. Requires monies in the Fund to be distributed to qualifying counties for processing juvenile dependency cases.
Background
A dependent child is a child who is adjudicated to be: 1) in need of proper and effective parental care and control and has no parent or guardian, or the parent or guardian is not willing to exercise or is incapable of exercising care and control; 2) destitute, or not provided with the necessities of life, including adequate food, clothing, shelter or medical care, or where the home is unfit by reason of abuse, neglect, cruelty or depravity by a parent, guardian or other person having care or custody of the child; 3) younger than eight years old and found to have committed an act that would result in adjudication as a delinquent juvenile or incorrigible child if committed by an older juvenile or child; or 4) incompetent or not restorable to competency and alleged to have committed a serious offense (A.R.S. § 8-201).
A juvenile court is the juvenile division of the superior court that has jurisdiction over children in any proceeding relating to delinquency, dependency or incorrigibility. A juvenile has the right to be represented by counsel in all juvenile court proceedings that involve offenses, dependency or termination of parental rights that may result in detention. If a juvenile, parent or guardian is found to be indigent and is entitled to counsel, the juvenile court must appoint an attorney to represent the juvenile, parent or guardian unless counsel for the juvenile is waived (A.R.S. § 8-221). The Department of Child Safety or any interested party may file a petition alleging that a child is dependent. The juvenile court must set the initial dependency hearing within 21 days after the dependency petition is filed (A.R.S. §§ 8-841 and 8-842).
The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) was established in 1982 to enhance the effectiveness and coordination of the criminal justice system in Arizona. It performs various coordinating, monitoring and reporting functions regarding the administration and management of criminal justice programs in Arizona. The ACJC administers the State Aid to County Attorneys Fund and the State Aid to Indigent Defense Fund and distributes monies from these Funds to counties to improve the processing of criminal cases (A.R.S. §§ 41-2405 and 41-2409).
H.B. 2401 appropriates $2,000,000 from the state GF in FY 2022 to the Fund.
Provisions
1. Establishes the Fund and requires the ACJC to administer the Fund.
2. Requires monies in the Fund to provide state aid to county public defenders, legal defenders and contract indigent defense counsel for processing juvenile dependency cases.
3. Specifies that the Fund consists of legislative appropriations and monies in the Fund are continuously appropriated.
4. Directs the State Treasurer, on notice from the ACJC, to invest and divest monies in the Fund and requires monies earned from investment to be credited to the Fund.
5. Requires the ACJC, by September 1 of each fiscal year, to proportionately distribute monies in the Fund to each county in which the three-year average of total juvenile dependency case filings in the county superior court exceeds the three-year average from FY 2013, FY 2014 and FY 2015.
6. Requires the county boards of supervisors to separately account for monies distributed from the Fund and spend the monies on assistance for processing juvenile dependency cases.
7. Requires a county treasurer to invest the monies received from the Fund and specifies that any interest earned must be used for processing juvenile dependency cases.
8. Appropriates $2,000,000 from the state GF in FY 2022 to the Fund and exempts the appropriation from lapsing.
9. Exempts the monies in the Fund from lapsing.
10. Makes technical and conforming changes.
11. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
House Action
JUD 2/10/21 DP 10-0-0-0
APPROP 2/17/21 DP 13-0-0-0
3rd Read 2/24/21 54-5-1
Prepared by Senate Research
March 12, 2021
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