OH HB14

Requires the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to establish a statewide kinship care navigator program organized into 5-12 regions to assist kinship caregivers with information and support services.

Expands the definition of "kinship caregiver" to include non-relative adults with a familiar, long-standing relationship or bond with a child or family that ensures the child's social ties.

Program must provide information and referral services for publicly funded child care, respite care, special needs training, toll-free hotline access, and legal services to kinship caregivers.

Appropriates $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2020 and $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2021 from the General Revenue Fund to support the Kinship Care Navigator Program, with authority to use appropriated amounts to match federal Title IV-E funds.

Department must adopt rules to implement the program under Chapter 119 of the Revised Code, with fiscal and administrative rules treated as internal management rules under section 111.15.