(A) The department of youth services shall make grants in accordance with this section to encourage counties to use community-based programs and services for juveniles who are adjudicated delinquent children for the commission of acts that would be felonies if committed by an adult.

(B) Each county seeking a grant under this section shall file an application with the department of youth services. The application shall be filed at the time and in accordance with procedures established by the department in rules adopted under this section. Each application shall be accompanied by a plan designed to reduce the county's commitment percentage, or to enable it to maintain or attain a commitment percentage that is equal to or below the statewide average commitment percentage. A county's commitment percentage is the percentage determined by dividing the number of juveniles the county committed to the department during the year by the number of juveniles who were eligible to be committed. The statewide average commitment percentage is the percentage determined by dividing the number of juveniles in the state committed to the department during the year by the number of juveniles who were eligible to be committed. These percentages shall be determined by the department using the most reliable data available to it.

Each plan shall include a method of ensuring equal access for minority youth to the programs and services for which the grant will be used.

The department shall review each application and plan to ensure that the requirements of this division are satisfied. Any county applying for a grant under this section that received a grant under this section during the preceding year and that failed to meet its commitment goals for that year shall make the changes in its plan that the department requires in order to continue to be eligible for grants under this section.

(C) Subject to division (E) of this section, the amounts appropriated for the purpose of making grants under this section shall be distributed annually on a per capita basis among the counties that have complied with division (B) of this section.

(D) The department shall adopt rules to implement this section. The rules shall include, but are not limited to, procedures and schedules for submitting applications and plans under this section, including procedures allowing joint-county applications and plans; and procedures for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the programs and services financed with grant money, the enhancement of the use of local facilities and services, and the adequacy of the supervision and treatment provided to juveniles by those programs and services.

(E)

(1) Three months prior to the implementation of the felony delinquent care and custody program described in section 5139.43 of the Revised Code, each county that is entitled to a grant under this section shall receive its grant money for the fiscal year or the remainder of its grant money for the fiscal year, other than any grant money to which it is entitled and that is set aside by the department of youth services for purposes of division (E)(2) of this section. The grant money so distributed shall be paid in a lump sum.

(2) During the first twelve months that the felony delinquent care and custody program described in section 5139.43 of the Revised Code is implemented in a county, any grant or the remainder of any grant to which a county is entitled and that is payable from the appropriation made to the department of youth services for community sanctions shall be distributed as follows:

(a) In the first quarter of the twelve-month period, the county shall receive one hundred per cent of the quarterly distribution.

(b) In the second quarter of the twelve-month period, the county shall receive seventy-five per cent of the quarterly distribution.

(c) In the third quarter of the twelve-month period, the county shall receive fifty per cent of the quarterly distribution.

(d) In the fourth quarter of the twelve-month period, the county shall receive twenty-five per cent of the quarterly distribution.

(3) Grant moneys received pursuant to divisions (E)(1) and (2) of this section shall be transmitted by the juvenile court of the recipient county to the county treasurer, shall be deposited by the county treasurer into the felony delinquent care and custody fund created pursuant to division (B)(1) of section 5139.43 of the Revised Code, and shall be used by the juvenile court in accordance with division (B)(2) of that section. The grant moneys shall be in addition to, and shall not be used to reduce, any usual annual increase in county funding that the juvenile court is eligible to receive or the current level of county funding of the juvenile court and of any programs or services for delinquent children, unruly children, or juvenile traffic offenders.

(4) One year after the commencement of its operation of the felony delinquent care and custody program described in section 5139.43 of the Revised Code, the department shall not make any further grants under this section.

Effective Date: 09-26-2003.