AN ACT to appropriate funds to be used FOR GRANTS PROviding vocational rehabilitation training for individuals participating in a local judicially managed accountability and recovery court.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services, the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars ($7,500,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2024‑2025 fiscal year to be used to provide grant funds to counties to allow local judicially managed accountability and recovery courts to obtain vocational rehabilitation training for individuals assigned to a local judicially managed accountability and recovery court. Training obtained for individuals under this section shall be provided by a North Carolina community college, and grant funds received pursuant to this section may also be used to provide transportation to these trainings.

SECTION 1.(b)  The grant funds distributed pursuant to this section shall be distributed through a competitive grant program developed and managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services. No county may receive grant funds distributed pursuant to this section in excess of one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) in a single fiscal year.

SECTION 2.  Within 60 days of distributing a grant pursuant to this act, the Department of Health and Human Services shall report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services the county receiving the grant and the amount of funds awarded.

SECTION 3.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, funds appropriated and distributed pursuant to this act shall not revert until June 30, 2026.

SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2024.