CONTRACTS WITH ADVOCATE PROGRAMS

(a) The statewide organization with which the commission contracts under Section 264.603 shall contract for services with eligible volunteer advocate programs to provide advocacy services to abused or neglected children. (b) The contract under this section may not result in reducing the financial support a volunteer advocate program receives from another source. (c) The commission shall develop a scale of state financial support for volunteer advocate programs that declines over a six-year period beginning on the date each individual contract takes effect. After the end of the six-year period, the commission may not provide more than 50 percent of the volunteer advocate program's funding. (d) The executive commissioner by rule shall adopt standards for a local volunteer advocate program. The statewide organization shall assist the executive commissioner in developing the standards. (e) The department, in cooperation with the statewide organization with which the commission contracts under Section 264.603 and other interested agencies, shall support the expansion of court-appointed volunteer advocate programs into counties in which there is a need for the programs. In expanding into a county, a program shall work to ensure the independence of the program, to the extent possible, by establishing community support and accessing private funding from the community for the program. (f) Expenses incurred by a volunteer advocate program to promote public awareness of the need for volunteer advocates or to explain the work performed by volunteer advocates that are paid with money from the commission volunteer advocate program account under Section 504.611, Transportation Code, are not considered administrative expenses for the purpose of Section 264.603(b).