Bill > H213

This bill seeks to assure quality foster care by making foster parents public employees, with certain collective bargaining rights. The key provisions include: 1. Defining "foster parent" as a person authorized or licensed by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to provide foster or pre-adoptive care, or a former foster parent receiving post-adoptive subsidies. 2. Establishing that foster parents are public employees solely for the purposes of the state's public employee labor relations law (Chapter 150E), allowing them to collectively bargain with the DCF on matters like responsibilities, training, payment rates, respite care, and dispute resolution procedures. 3. Prohibiting foster parents from engaging in strikes or work stoppages, and limiting the appropriate bargaining unit to all licensed foster parents in the state. 4. Clarifying that the collective bargaining process does not apply to DCF's statutory functions of licensing, monitoring, and taking enforcement actions against foster parents. 5. Providing that collectively bargained agreements between DCF and foster parents will supersede any inconsistent written agreements. 6. Granting the state action exemption to federal antitrust laws for collective bargaining and related activities by foster parents.

Budget and Finance, Health and Social Services

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H213