To amend section 5123.19 of the Revised Code to revise the law governing the licensure of residential facilities for individuals with mental retardation or other developmental disability.

Section 1. That section 5123.19 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:

Sec. 5123.19.  (A) As used in this section and in sections 5123.191, 5123.194, and 5123.20 of the Revised Code:

(1) "Residential facility" means a home or facility in which a mentally retarded or developmentally disabled person resides, except the home of a relative or legal guardian in which a mentally retarded or developmentally disabled person resides, a respite care home certified under section 5126.05 of the Revised Code, a county home or district home operated pursuant to Chapter 5155. of the Revised Code, or a dwelling in which the only mentally retarded or developmentally disabled residents are in an independent living arrangement or are being provided supported living.

(2) "Political subdivision" means a municipal corporation, county, or township.

(3) "Independent living arrangement" means an arrangement in which a mentally retarded or developmentally disabled person resides in an individualized setting chosen by the person or the person's guardian, which is not dedicated principally to the provision of residential services for mentally retarded or developmentally disabled persons, and for which no financial support is received for rendering such service from any governmental agency by a provider of residential services.

(4) "Supported living" has the same meaning as in section 5126.01 of the Revised Code.

(5) "Licensee" means the person or government agency that has applied for a license to operate a residential facility and to which the license was issued under this section.

(B) Every person or government agency desiring to operate a residential facility shall apply for licensure of the facility to the director of mental retardation and developmental disabilities unless the residential facility is subject to section 3721.02, 3722.04, 5103.03, or 5119.20 of the Revised Code. Notwithstanding Chapter 3721. of the Revised Code, a nursing home that is certified as an intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded under Title XIX of the "Social Security Act," 49 79 Stat. 620 286 (1935 1965), 42 U.S.C.A. 301 1396, as amended, shall apply for licensure of the portion of the home that is certified as an intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded.

(C) The director of mental retardation and developmental disabilities shall license and inspect survey the operation of residential facilities. The director may deny or, renew, terminate, and revoke such licenses.

Except as provided in divisions (G) and (O) of this section, a An initial license is valid until it is for one year unless terminated, revoked, or voluntarily surrendered earlier. Appeals A renewed license is valid for three years unless terminated, revoked, or voluntarily surrendered earlier.

Appeals from proceedings initiated to deny applications for licenses or to terminate or revoke licenses shall be conducted in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code.

In accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, the director shall adopt and may amend and rescind rules for licensing and regulating the operation of residential facilities. The rules shall establish and specify the following:

(1) Procedures for issuing, denying, renewing, terminating, and revoking licenses;

(2) Circumstances, including the circumstance specified in division (G) of this section, under which a license is to be terminated rather than revoked;

(3) Fees for issuing and renewing licenses;

(3)(4) Procedures for the inspection of surveying residential facilities;

(4)(5) Requirements for the training of residential facility personnel;

(5)(6) Classifications for the various types of residential facilities;

(6)(7) Certification procedures for licensees and management contractors that the director determines are necessary to ensure that they have the skills and qualifications to properly operate or manage residential facilities;

(7)(8) The maximum number of persons who may be served in a particular type of residential facility;

(8)(9) Uniform procedures for admission of persons to and transfers and discharges of persons from residential facilities;

(9)(10) Other standards for the operation of residential facilities and the services provided at residential facilities;

(10)(11) Procedures for waiving any provision of any rule adopted under this section.

(D) Before issuing a license, the director of the department or the director's designee shall conduct an inspection a survey of the residential facility for which application is made. The director or the director's designee shall conduct an inspection a survey of each licensed residential facility at least once each year during the period the license is valid and may conduct additional inspections as needed. An inspection A survey includes but is not limited to an on-site examination and evaluation of the residential facility, its personnel, and the services provided there.

In conducting inspections surveys, the director or the director's designee shall be given access to the residential facility; all records, accounts, and any other documents related to the operation of the facility; the licensee; the residents of the facility; and all persons acting on behalf of, under the control of, or in connection with the licensee. The licensee and all persons on behalf of, under the control of, or in connection with the licensee shall cooperate with the director or the director's designee in conducting the inspection survey.

Following each inspection survey, unless the director initiates a license revocation proceeding, the director or the director's designee shall provide the licensee with a report listing any deficiencies, specifying a timetable within which the licensee shall submit a plan of correction describing how the deficiencies will be corrected, and, when appropriate, specifying a timetable within which the licensee must correct the deficiencies. After a plan of correction is submitted, the director or the director's designee shall approve or disapprove the plan. A copy of the report and any approved plan of correction shall be provided to any person who requests it.

If it is determined that a residential facility is not being operated in compliance with this chapter or the rules adopted under it, the director may take such steps as are necessary, including, but not limited to, suspension of admissions to the residential facility, placement of a monitor at the residential facility, and the initiation of license revocation proceedings.

If it is determined that a person's operation of two or more residential facilities is not in compliance with this chapter or the rules adopted under it, the director may suspend admissions to each residential facility that the person operates.

When the director initiates license revocation proceedings, no opportunity for submitting a plan of correction shall be given. The director shall notify the licensee by letter of the initiation of such proceedings. The letter shall list the deficiencies of the residential facility and inform the licensee that no plan of correction will be accepted. The director shall also notify each affected resident, the resident's guardian if the resident is an adult for whom a guardian has been appointed, the resident's parent or guardian if the resident is a minor, and the county board of mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

Pursuant to rules which shall be adopted in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, the director may order the immediate removal of residents from a residential facility whenever conditions at the facility present an immediate danger of physical or psychological harm to the residents.

In determining whether a residential facility is being operated in compliance with this chapter or the rules adopted under it, or whether conditions at a residential facility present an immediate danger of physical or psychological harm to the residents, the director may rely on information obtained by a county board of mental retardation and developmental disabilities or other governmental agencies in the course of investigating major unusual incidents. The director shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code that specify what constitute "major unusual incidents."

The director shall suspend without pay for a period of at least three days initiate disciplinary action against any department employee who notifies or causes the notification to any unauthorized person of an unannounced inspection survey of a residential facility by an authorized representative of the department.

(E) In proceedings initiated to deny or revoke licenses under this section, the director may deny or revoke a license regardless of whether some or all of the deficiencies that prompted the proceedings have been corrected at the time of the hearing.

(F) In addition to any other information which may be required of applicants for a license pursuant to this section, the director shall require each applicant to provide a copy of an approved plan for a proposed residential facility pursuant to section 5123.042 of the Revised Code.

(G) Pursuant to rules which shall be adopted in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, the director may require notification to the department of any significant change in the ownership of a residential facility or in the identity of the licensee or management contractor. When such notification is not given, the director may cancel terminate the residential facility's license. If the director determines that a significant change of ownership is proposed, the director shall consider the proposed change to be an application for development by a new operator pursuant to section 5123.042 of the Revised Code and shall advise the applicant within sixty days of such notification that the current license shall continue in effect or a new license will be required pursuant to this section.

(H) A county board of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, the legal rights service, and any interested person may file complaints alleging violations of statute or department rule relating to residential facilities with the department. All complaints shall be in writing and shall state the facts constituting the basis of the allegation. The department shall not reveal the source of any complaint unless the complainant agrees in writing to waive the right to confidentiality or until so ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The department shall acknowledge receipt of the complaint and notify the complainant of the action that will be taken with respect to it within five working days of receiving it adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code establishing procedures for the receipt, referral, investigation, and disposition of complaints filed with the department under this division.

The substance of a complaint shall not be provided to a licensee until the commencement of an inspection or investigation.

(I) The department shall establish procedures for the notification of interested parties of the transfer or interim care of residents from residential facilities that are closing or are losing their license.

(J) Before issuing a license under this section to a residential facility that will accommodate at any time more than one mentally retarded or developmentally disabled individual, the director shall, by first class mail, notify the following:

(1) If the facility will be located in a municipal corporation, the clerk of the legislative authority of the municipal corporation;

(2) If the facility will be located in unincorporated territory, the clerk of the appropriate board of county commissioners and the clerk of the appropriate board of township trustees.

The director shall not issue the license for ten days after mailing the notice, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, in order to give the notified local officials time in which to comment on the proposed issuance.

Any legislative authority of a municipal corporation, board of county commissioners, or board of township trustees that receives notice under this division of the proposed issuance of a license for a residential facility may comment on it in writing to the director within ten days after the director mailed the notice, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. If the director receives written comments from any notified officials within the specified time, the director shall make written findings concerning the comments and the director's decision on the issuance of the license. If the director does not receive written comments from any notified local officials within the specified time, the director shall continue the process for issuance of the license.

(K) Any person may operate a licensed residential facility that provides room and board, personal care, habilitation services, and supervision in a family setting for at least six but not more than eight persons with mental retardation or a developmental disability as a permitted use in any residential district or zone, including any single-family residential district or zone, of any political subdivision. These residential facilities may be required to comply with area, height, yard, and architectural compatibility requirements that are uniformly imposed upon all single-family residences within the district or zone.

(L)(K) Any person may operate a licensed residential facility that provides room and board, personal care, habilitation services, and supervision in a family setting for at least nine but not more than sixteen persons with mental retardation or a developmental disability as a permitted use in any multiple-family residential district or zone of any political subdivision, except that a political subdivision that has enacted a zoning ordinance or resolution establishing planned unit development districts may exclude these residential facilities from such districts, and a political subdivision that has enacted a zoning ordinance or resolution may regulate these residential facilities in multiple-family residential districts or zones as a conditionally permitted use or special exception, in either case, under reasonable and specific standards and conditions set out in the zoning ordinance or resolution to:

(1) Require the architectural design and site layout of the residential facility and the location, nature, and height of any walls, screens, and fences to be compatible with adjoining land uses and the residential character of the neighborhood;

(2) Require compliance with yard, parking, and sign regulation;

(3) Limit excessive concentration of these residential facilities.

(M)(L) This section does not prohibit a political subdivision from applying to residential facilities nondiscriminatory regulations requiring compliance with health, fire, and safety regulations and building standards and regulations.

(N)(M) Divisions (J) and (K) and (L) of this section are not applicable to municipal corporations that had in effect on June 15, 1977, an ordinance specifically permitting in residential zones licensed residential facilities by means of permitted uses, conditional uses, or special exception, so long as such ordinance remains in effect without any substantive modification.

(O)(N)(1) The director may issue an interim license to operate a residential facility to an applicant for a license under this section if all either of the following conditions are met:

(1)(a) All of the following conditions are met:

(i) The director determines that an emergency exists that requires immediate placement of persons in a residential facility, and insufficient licensed beds are available.

(2)(ii) The residential facility meets the standards in rules for interim licenses that the director shall adopt in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code established in rules adopted under this division.

(3)(iii) The director determines that the residential facility is likely to receive a license under this section within thirty days after issuance of the interim license.

(b) The director determines that the issuance of an interim license is necessary to meet a temporary need for a residential facility and the residential facility meets the standards for an interim license established in rules adopted under this division.

(2) An interim license shall be valid for thirty days and may be renewed by the director no more than twice. The director shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code establishing standards for an interim license.

(P)(O) Notwithstanding rules adopted pursuant to this section establishing the maximum number of persons who may be served in a particular type of residential facility, a residential facility shall be permitted to serve the same number of persons being served by the facility on the effective date of such rules or the number of persons for which the facility is authorized pursuant to a current application for a certificate of need with a letter of support from the department of mental retardation and developmental disabilities and which is in the review process prior to April 4, 1986.

(Q)(P) The director or the director's designee may enter at any time, for purposes of investigation, any home, facility, or other structure that has been reported to the director or that the director has reasonable cause to believe is being operated as a residential facility without a license issued under this section.

The director may petition the court of common pleas of the county in which an unlicensed residential facility is located for an order enjoining the person or governmental agency operating the facility from continuing to operate without a license. The court may grant the injunction on a showing that the person or governmental agency named in the petition is operating a residential facility without a license. The court may grant the injunction, regardless of whether the residential facility meets the requirements for receiving a license under this section.

Section 2. That existing section 5123.19 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.

Section 3. The Director of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code establishing a schedule for residential facilities licensed under section 5123.19 of the Revised Code on the effective date of this section to seek renewal of the license in accordance with the amendments made by this act to that section.