(1) (a) The foster youth successful transition to adulthood grant program is created within the state department. The purpose of the grant program is to create and administer programs that support eligible youth in making a successful transition to adulthood and provide case management services for voucher recipients as described in section 19-7-314.5. (b) The state department shall ensure that services are available to eligible youth throughout Colorado and, in order to do so, administer a merit-based application process to select service providers as follows: (I) An application from a county department must receive preference over applications from other types of entities; and (II) An application for a proposed program must receive preference if it includes the provision of evidence-based services. (c) Youth who meet the following criteria are eligible for services from a program that has received a grant from the grant program: (I) The youth is eighteen years of age or older but less than twenty-three years of age, or the upper age limit established in the federal "Social Security Act", 42 U.S.C. sec. 677 (a), whichever is greater; (II) The youth was in foster care or adjudicated dependent and neglected on or after the youth's fourteenth birthday; and (III) The youth voluntarily agrees to participate in the program that is receiving a grant from the grant program. (2) There is created in the state treasury the Colorado foster youth successful transition to adulthood grant program fund, referred to in this section as the "fund". The fund consists of any money that the general assembly may appropriate to the fund. Money in the fund is subject to annual appropriation by the general assembly to the state department for the purpose of providing grants pursuant to this section and for the direct and indirect costs associated with the implementation of this section. Any money in the fund not expended for the purpose of this section may be invested by the state treasurer as provided by law. All interest and income derived from the investment and deposit of money in the fund must be credited to the fund. Any unexpended and unencumbered money remaining in the fund at the end of a state fiscal year must remain in the fund and available for expenditure by the state department in the next fiscal year without further appropriation. (3) (a) The state department shall convene an advisory board, which shall meet at least two times per year, to review the grant program and provide recommendations to the state department including the following items: (I) Implementation of the grant program; (II) Funding models and allocation methodologies, including consultation with the advisory board before the state department allocates funding received through the federal "John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood", 42 U.S.C. sec. 677, for the grant program; (III) Content for grant program applications; and (IV) Scoring methodology for grant program application review. (b) The executive director shall appoint members of the advisory board for two-year terms. The board must include: (I) Two directors of county departments of human or social services, or their designees; (II) Two directors of runaway homeless youth providers, or their designees; (III) One staff member from the state department with administrative responsibility for programming funded through the federal "John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood", 42 U.S.C. sec. 677; (IV) The managing director of the Colorado workforce development council, or the director's designee; (V) The executive director of the department of higher education or the director's designee; and (VI) Two youth who have previously participated in the transition program or the federal "John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood", 42 U.S.C. sec. 677. (c) The advisory board shall have its first meeting on or before October 1, 2022.
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