Section 173.270 - Subject to appropriation, requires the Coordinating Board for Higher Education to award scholarships to former foster children who were adopted or given a permanent legal guardian after age thirteen. The scholarship will be equal to the amount the child would have received from a Pell grant if he or she had remained a ward of the state. A variety of materials may be made available on the Internet and to the Department of Social Services, public health facilities, family planning clinics, child-placing agencies, and private physicians. Abortion facilities may obtain the information upon request. New language allows any adopted person over eighteen years of age to make a written application to receive a copy of his or her original birth certificate.
New language changes the eligibility age to forty-five.
Beginning in fiscal year 2002, new language requires an incremental increase of the reimbursement rate over a three-year period until it at least meets the rates established by the federal government. Section 210.950 - Allows a parent to relinquish custody of a child of no more than thirty days old to a hospital, if the child has not been physically abused by the parent. The hospital shall immediately notify the Division of Family Services. The hospital will be immune from liability for any act connected with accepting the child, with the exception of a reasonable standard of medical care. The state shall reimburse the hospital for actual expenses.