HB2401 Summary

• Establishes the State Aid for Juvenile Dependency Proceedings Fund, to be administered by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission and funded by legislative appropriations.

• Monies in the fund shall be used to provide state aid to county public defenders, legal defenders, and contract indigent defense counsel for processing juvenile dependency cases.

• Requires the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission to distribute funds to counties on or before September 1 of each fiscal year based on the proportion of each qualifying county's population to total qualifying county population, with distribution only to counties exceeding their fiscal years 2012-2015 three-year average juvenile dependency case filings.

• Appropriates $2,000,000 from the state general fund in fiscal year 2021-2022 to the juvenile dependency fund, with monies exempt from lapsing provisions.

• Makes technical corrections to section 41-2409 regarding references to "three year" averages and changes "department of economic security" to "office of economic opportunity."