(a) At least 30 days prior to the date on which a prospective permanent kinship conservator anticipates being granted permanent managing conservatorship of the child by the court, the prospective permanent kinship conservator must complete an application for permanency care assistance, which can be obtained from the child's caseworker. In addition to documenting the eligibility criteria for the receipt of permanency care assistance, as specified in this subchapter, the application may request additional information that will be used to negotiate the amount of monthly payments for which the person may be eligible.
(b) After receiving a completed application, and prior to the date on which permanent managing conservatorship is awarded to the prospective permanent kinship conservator, DFPS will notify the applicant of whether or not benefits are approved and, if so, negotiate the terms of the permanency care assistance agreement with the prospective permanent kinship conservator.
(c) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, if through no fault of the prospective permanent kinship conservator there is insufficient time to submit the application at least 30 days prior to the date of an anticipated award of permanent managing conservatorship by the court, the application should be submitted as soon as possible and DFPS will expedite its handling of the application.
(d) The prospective permanent kinship conservator must sign a permanency care assistance agreement prior to becoming the child's permanent kinship conservator. Exceptions can be made to this requirement only in certain circumstances, as described in §700.1059 of this title (relating to Can a child still get benefits if a permanency care assistance agreement was not signed before the permanent kinship conservator was granted permanent managing conservatorship of the child?).

Source Note: The provisions of this §700.1037 adopted to be effective March 1, 2010, 35 TexReg 878; amended to be effective January 19, 2017, 42 TexReg 84