HB 46

Present law prohibits state funds appropriated specificall y for child advocacy centers from being allocated or paid to any such center unless the center clearly demonstrates certain criteria. For those meeting such criteria, the department of children's services, or any other department administering state fund s specially appropriated for child advocacy centers (together "department""), must continue to allocate or pay such funds to existing child advocacy centers with active applications on file with the department, REIMBURSEMENT PAYMENT SCHEDULE This bill req uires the department to ensure that a reimbursement payment owed to a child advocacy center is paid within 30 days of the date a request for reimbursement from the child advocacy center is received. For any reimbursement that is not completed within such thirty-day period, the department must pay to the child advocacy center an additional amount equal to 10% of the total reimbursement amount owed as a late payment fee, with such the ten-percent payment being paid from the applicable department's budget wi t hout additional appropriation. ANNUAL REPORT This bill provides that, on or before January 15, 2026, and no later than January 15 of each year thereafter, the department must submit to the clerks of the senate and the house of representatives a report o n the timeliness of reimbursements to child advocacy centers in this state during the previous calendar year. The report must include, at a minimum, data on the amount of reimbursements to child advocacy centers that failed to meet the thirty-day deadlin e, expressed as both a raw number and a percentage of total reimbursements, and the amount of late payment fees incurred."