Today, Ohio Governor signed into law Amended House Bill 166, Ohio's Budget for 2019-2021. The Bill included provisions to end the practice of forced custody relinquishment. Thank you to Ohio House and Senate Leadership and our many allies, especially to Senator Jay Hottinger for fighting to create a Multi-System Youth Custody Relinquishment Fund! Here are the details: Multi-System Youth Custody Relinquishment Prevention in Ohio’s 2019-2021 Budget Sec. 121.374 (A) It is the intent of this state and the general assembly that custody relinquishment for the sole purpose of gaining access to child-specific services for multi-system children and youth shall cease. (B) The Ohio family and children first council established under section 121.37 of the Revised Code shall develop a comprehensive multi-system youth action plan that does the following: (1) Defines and establishes shared responsibility between county and state child-serving systems for providing and funding multi-system youth services; (2) Provides recommendations for flexible spending at the state level within the cabinet council; (3) Defines the model and process by which the flexible spending may be accessed to pay for services for multi-system youth; (4) Identifies strategies to assist with reducing custody relinquishment for the sole purpose of gaining access to services for multi-system children and youth; (5) Implements the full final recommendations of the joint legislative committee for multi-system youth; (6) Conducts an assessment of the legal and financial conditions that contribute to custody relinquishment for the purposes of receiving child-specific services. (C) Not later than December 31, 2019, the cabinet council shall submit its final action plan to the general assembly. SECTION 333.10. MCD DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAID 5DL0 651690 Multi-system Youth Custody Relinquishment FY 2019-2020 $ 6,000,000 FY 2020-2021 $ 12,000,000 SECTION 333.95. MULTI-SYSTEM YOUTH CUSTODY RELINQUISHMENT The foregoing appropriation item 651690, Multi-System Youth Custody Relinquishment, shall be used to prevent custody relinquishment of multi-system children and youth and to obtain services consistent with the plan developed under section 121.374 of the Revised Code.